


Fearless

by Waugh



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Asexuality Spectrum, Canon-Typical Mindfuckery, Crossdressing, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, Gen, M/M, Other, Video Game Mechanics, Worldbuilding, genderfluidity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-10-09
Packaged: 2018-02-11 11:31:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2066523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waugh/pseuds/Waugh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxanne did not mean for any of this to happen, but then again, she rarely did. Things tended to happen anyway. Like waking up naked in a shipping crate in a video game universe and only narrowly escaping being stuck in the crazy ward. </p><p>Well, to be honest, that was a new thing...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which We Meet Our Protagonist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fic is currently undergoing maintenance and upgrades - please mind the dust.

Roxanne adjusted her gauntlet, fastening and refastening the straps that held the wrist together. She had adjusted the size of them already - her hands were not small for a woman, but apparently the gloves had been made for an "extra small" giant or somesuch. Her eyes scanned the brush in front of her nervously.

Three days ago she had woken up in a shipping crate, buck naked, and in a video game she had last played during high school. The sailors who had found her were good people, thankfully, and immediately assumed that she was a kidnapping victim. She had assumed the same thing at the time.

It was only through a bit of quick thinking and a healthy distrust of authority that she had escaped the Junon hospital before being thrown into the crazy ward. Not having any identification was one thing, but claiming to be from a country that didn't actually exist in this world? Yeah, not a good idea in hindsight.

Three days, one string of petty thefts (and not so petty, in the case of her new materia), multiple library searches (no internet was a thing of horror) and some furious brainstorming and she was able to put together a game plan. Of sorts.

The old guy at Cosmo Canyon - Bugenhagen, Roxanne thought his name was, was probably the one person in the entire game - world - whatever - that might actually be able to help her. She had to get to him. Somehow.

Unfortunately, travel to the Western Continent was not cheap. And... as a social scientist without a degree, without references... she had essentially no job skills. That wasn't to say that she hadn't had certain... _offers_. But there was only so far she was willing to go for a few bucks. Gil. Whatever. Even if she hadn't been an extremely picky grey-ace, she still was definitely not sex worker material.

So, that brought her to where she was. Loitering along a path a little outside of Junon, materia she could barely use inserted into a stolen gauntlet. Waiting to be attacked by a monster. And hoping that Final Fantasy VII's video game mechanics were somehow true to life.

She had some martial arts experience. Not a lot, but some. Enough to do some damage. Hopefully. If she lived that long.

 _Fuck me_ , Roxanne thought _. Are we sure I'm not actually insane?_

The bushes nearby rustled ominously. Wildly inappropriate theme music began playing in her head, and she shifted into a fighting stance. Her heart surged.

A short blond man crashed through the shrubbery and fell on his face. He didn't move.

Roxanne walked up to him, poking him with her booted foot. "You alive there, champ?" she asked.

"Gaia, let me die," the blond said, curling up in a ball and covering his face in mortification.

"Sorry, no such luck, kid," Roxanne said. "You running from something?" She looked around once more.

"Does my own life count?" the blond kid answered, raising his head up to look at her. His eyes were a shock of blue.

"Yes," she decided, after a moment had passed. "Junon's that way if you're looking for it," Roxanne pointed back the way she came.

"Just came from there, actually," the blond kid confessed. "I got a little... lost. I, ah..." He trailed off, looking down and biting his lip. "I don't suppose you know the way to Midgar?"

"Ah... On foot?" Roxanne blinked at him. "Sorry. Can't help you there."

The blond kid looked as if he might cry.

 _Ah, crap!_ Roxanne winced. She didn't know how to handle crying people. "Uh, I guess you can't take a transport? Maybe you could follow the road instead?"

"I spent all my money getting here. And the roads go through the mountains," the blond kid sniffled, "I know better than to risk those on foot."

"Your parents can't send you money for a bus?" she asked, feeling guilty.

"I can't ask my Mom for money," the blond kid protested.

"Well, you're shit out of luck, then," Roxanne said after a moment _. Can't ask his mom for money? Is he a runaway..?_ "Unless you happen to be skilled at pickpocketing or hunting monsters."

The kid blinked at her, wide-eyed.

"It's a living," she told him seriously.

The kid's mouth began to drop open, an expression of pure terror sliding over his face, and finally Roxanne registered that she was not the one he was looking at. She turned around slowly, raising her fists.

A bizarre hybrid between a cactus, a bird and a yeti stared at her, malice in its beady red eyes. The thing was a moldy green, covered in spines and half again her height. It let out a high-pitched warble and lumbered closer, its enormous prickly wing-arm-thingies reaching towards her.

Roxanne stared at it for a moment _. "_ Yeah... no," she said. Her hand trailed over her materia, over her stolen Restore and her lucky Enemy Skill find - actually, that was also probably stolen, come to think of it - and, finally over the one she needed.

Roxanne reached within herself, to the place that the creepy man on top of the mountain of boxes had showed her, and cast _Ice_. A million needlepoints of cold crystalized in midair and hurtled themselves at the creature.

It bellowed in surprise and pain, flapping upwards. It looked mad. She should probably kill it quickly.

Roxanne cast _Ice_ again and again and again, throwing herself out of the way of the creature's counterattacks. She felt a disconnected sense of gratitude for her former self defense trainer's constant drilling in falls and rolls.

She was distracting the thing away from the kid when a brilliant flash of light temporarily blinded her and she hit the ground once more, every joint in her body locking. The creature touched down and lumbered over to her, its arm-wing-thingies raised for a deathblow.

Roxanne reached inside of herself for one more _Ice_ and felt nothing. _Oh, crap_ , she thought blankly, watching it come closer. _This was stupid of me - what a pathetic way to die -_ She struggled to sit up.

A blur of yellow and blue shot past her, issuing a strangled war cry. A wave of red shot upwards and the creature shrieked in pain and dismay. The blonde kid was standing with his feet planted in front of her, what looked to be a broadsword held out in front of him.

"Are you crazy?" Roxanne choked out. "Run!"

The kid shook his head slowly, not taking his eyes off of the creature. The blade in front of him trembled, betraying his nerves.

 _Shit,_ Roxanne thought to herself _. Shit-shit-shit-shit-_ Somehow, through sheer force of will, she managed to get to her feet. "Don't suppose you have an ether on you, then?"

"Sorry," the kid apologized.

Roxanne dragged herself one step forward, and then another. She was recovering from being electrocuted far faster than she would have in real life, she noted idly. "Goddamn it kid," Roxanne said. "Stop apologizing." She rolled her shoulders, cracking her neck.

The creature flapped its way into the air again, another band of white encircling it. The torn skin mended immediately, though the still-wet blood remained.

"Okay," Roxanne said, squinting at it. "Okay. It's healing itself, which is why I haven't managed to kill it yet. It has to be almost out of MP by now, though. We just have to keep hitting it. Though, since its airborne now we have to wait until it tries to hit us first."

"Shit," the kid said in a quavering voice.

"Yeah," Roxanne agreed.

And that is what they did. The kid's sword did the most damage, of course, since he was able to jump and twist his body to cut the thing. Roxanne had to wait until it touched the ground to pummel it with her fists and feet, mixing a series of half-remembered and half-learned styles into something that got her hit more often than she would have liked. A desperate five minutes later and one well-timed surge of energy on Roxanne's part and the creature collapsed into mist and dust, a pile of coins and a bottle clattering to the ground.

Roxanne limped over to investigate. _Thank you, almighty video game gods,_ she thought numbly, staring at the coins. _You got something right._ The bottle went straight into her pocket, and the coins were split right down the middle. She would offer half of them to the kid.

"Hopefully this'll help with your money problem," Roxanne said, turning around.

The kid was covered in scrapes and scratches. His spikey blonde hair was streaked with blood, and his purple shirt was filthy. He was staring at her in something approaching awe. All of a sudden, Roxanne had a terrible feeling.

"Are you a monster hunter?" he asked her. "A professional one? I mean - I've heard that ShinRa does a lot of monster hunting, but sometime there are freelancers, too-"

"Ah, yeah, I suppose," Roxanne said. This was the first monster she had ever hunted, and it would have killed her if it wasn't for this kid, but she supposed hunting it was giving her money to live on so _technically..._

"Wow!" the kid said.

"There are better things you could do with your life, kid," Roxanne said dryly. So far it seemed as if she made a terrible monster hunter. And she hurt all over. Absently, Roxanne tried to cast _Cure_. No dice.

"Don't say that!" the kid protested. "If we didn't have monster hunters around nobody would ever be able to go anywhere safely!"

"It has shitty benefits, and a decided lack of a retirement plan," Roxanne answered after a moment. She shook her head and sighed. "Why are we arguing about this?" she asked rhetorically. "I don't know why we're arguing about this. Come to think of it," she added, "I don't even know who you are. I'm Roxanne Waugh. You?"

"I'm Cloud Strife," the kid said, looking down once more.

This was fortunate for Roxanne, as he didn't get to see her choke.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! If you think that you've seen this story before, that's probably because you have. Had to take it down and do a bit of rewriting. Some of the secondary details were cluttering the thing, and I had to edit out some stuff. Also ended up combining some chapters and including new material.


	2. In Which Roxanne Has a Way With Words and Gets Herself a Job

Roxanne stared in abject dismay at the kid - Cloud _frickin_ ' Strife! _-_ in front of her. She knew the dismay had leaked over onto her expression when the kid looked up and winced.

"I know, it sounds ridiculous," he said in a tiny voice, looking away.

"No, no," she said quickly, trying to make something up. "It's a wonderful name for a video game protagonist. Um." _Well, shit._

Cloud snorted at that, his lips curling upwards.

"C'mon, kid," Roxanne said carefully. "We should probably head back to Junon. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty damn tired right about now."

Cloud nodded at this, almost woodenly.

"Oh, yeah," Roxanne added, looking back at the pile of gil. "Half of these are yours, I suppose."

"But-" Cloud protested, "I didn't do anything!"

Roxanne eyed him for a moment in disbelief.

"I froze!"

"Yeah, no," Roxanne said, squinting at him. "I seem to remember someone jumping in front of me to stop me from getting smacked around, refusing to run away and leave me to fight by myself, and then helping me kill the thing. Clearly, one of us must be delusional. I vote for you."

Cloud pouted at her for a long moment. He then shook his head. "If you hadn't been protecting me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt. If I hadn't frozen at the beginning, you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I can't..."

"How old are you again, kid?" Roxanne asked.

"Sixteen," Cloud said.

"Well then, I hate to break it to you, but you're a kid, kid," Roxanne said, rubbing her eyes. She wasn't quite sure just what the hell was going on anymore, not that she knew in the first place. "Everyone freezes up during their first fight. I know I did, and I had the benefit of fighting a human being and not a monster. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Cloud bit his lip in response.

"Now, lets get back before something else tries to kill us," Roxanne said. "I think we can probably afford a night at the inn. I hope."

They could, thankfully. It even had two beds, which cut down on the awkwardness of a grown-ass woman sharing a room with a sixteen year-old boy quite nicely. 

Cloud refused to take his share of the gil, which, of course, still wasn't enough to pay for the bus ride to Midgar. He also refused to let Roxanne do her monster-hunting alone. This was something that Roxanne was ashamed to feel grateful for, but it did make the next set of encounters easier and easier. She felt somewhat better about accepting help from the kid when she reminded herself that the kid in question was actually _Cloud frickin'_ _Strife_.

In the following days and weeks, Roxanne learned to use her Restore early and often, physically attacking her enemies when she could in order to save MP. Her crappy self-defense and thoroughly mixed-up martial arts slowly coalesced into something that actually functioned, the grueling practice forcing her to learn _very quickly_ or pay the price. It was similar with Cloud's sword skills, though a far cry from what someone with real combat training could pull off.

It probably helped that the video game mechanics were as disturbingly true to life as she had hoped, as Roxanne discovered one day when she tried to shut a door and ended up ripping it off its hinges. She had eyed it in quiet horror for a few seconds before carefully putting it back and tiptoeing away.

When Roxanne asked crazy box guy why more people didn't go hunting monsters if gaining super strength was the result, he muttered a few choice words about ShinRa, propaganda and the Turks and refused to elaborate further. Maybe people absorbing the life force energies of their kills was considered icky or something. Who really knew?

Though, apparently the money and potions? Accumulated from all the people the monsters had devoured. Roxanne could have lived happily without knowing _that_.

Eventually, the duo had the best gear money could buy (in Junon, at least) and were beginning to approach financial solvency. Roxanne had to prod at the elephant in the center of the room.

"What were you planning on doing in Midgar?" Roxanne asked one afternoon after they had defeated a band of chicken-lizard-things and collected almost 450 gil and three Hi-Potions for it. "I mean, I enjoy having a partner in ass-kicking as much as the next monster hunter, but you sounded like you needed to do something."

"I, uh..." Cloud started, eying his new Hardedge sword. "I wanted, I mean, I was going to..." He looked to the side.

"Yes?" Roxanne asked after a minute had passed.

"I wanted to join SOLDIER," Cloud said quietly. "To become a hero like Sephiroth."

Roxanne paused a moment, considering. If Cloud never joined ShinRa, never became friends with Zack, never went on the Nibelheim mission... What would happen to this world? Who would be able to defeat Sephiroth? Deepground?

But, then again...

"You don't need to join SOLDIER to be a hero," Roxanne said finally. "You just have to help people. You can do that as you are. And while the benefits might be shit, monster hunting pays better. We get to meet lots of interesting people, and don't even have to kill them afterwards. No uniforms is also a plus."

Fuck destiny and all its torments, anyway. Bushwhacking your way through life was just so much more fun. And if she was remembering right, the Knights of the Round summon could kill pretty much everything in the game. Maniacal artificially-enhanced swordsmen included.

Cloud didn't look particularly convinced by her argument. "It's been my dream for a long time," he said. "I - I appreciate your training with me and introducing me to the Beginner's Hall - but, I... I made a promise, and I..."

Roxanne sighed softly. "There's a few things in Midgar that I've been meaning to pick up," she said. "I might as well come along. We've had more than enough gil to pay for transport for a while now, anyways..."

"I would like that," Cloud said, looking shyly pleased.

"Brat," Roxanne said, ruffling his hair.

They headed out on the bus early next morning. Heavily armed ShinRa troopers were seated near every exit, their very presence keeping conversation at a minimum. They twice had to stop and exit the vehicle to deal with monsters.

Roxanne could tell when they got close to Midgar. The plant life began to twist and then shrivel, the very dirt becoming grey and dead even before the city was visible. A half hour later, a distant bulge appeared in the landscape and slowly it began to grow. And grow. And grow.

Roxanne's eyebrows raised themselves up of their own accord. "Reeve Tuesti, you are truly a magnificent bastard," she whispered softly as the city began to unfold in front of her. It was _glorious._

One of the other passengers, a long-haired man in a dark suit, gave her a funny look at her comment.

"What did you say?" Cloud groaned from beside her. He was putting all of his energy into not throwing up.

"Never you mind, kid," Roxanne answered, still staring at Midgar.

"You were muttering to yourself again, weren't you?" Cloud continued. "That's a sign of insanity, you know. People will talk."

Roxanne snorted at him. "You're in no position to be lecturing me about insanity, Cloud freakin' Strife."

"Mmm-fff," Cloud answered.

"That's what I thought," Roxanne said. "Maybe next time you might want to try a tranquilizer?"

"I'd rather suffer, thank you very much," Cloud replied.

"Well, you shouldn't be suffering for too much longer. We're almost there, kid," Roxanne offered.

The man in the suit was still staring at her.

"Yes?" Roxanne asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Can I help you with something?"

"Your brother's middle name is 'freakin''?" he asked slowly.

"If you think that's bad, you don't want to know what mine is," Roxanne replied evenly.

The suit guy tilted his head at her, frowning. "You are the monster hunting duo from the Western Continent," he said. "I heard about your exploits in Junon. What brings you to Midgar?"

"Little bro here wants to join SOLDIER," Roxanne said with an easy grin. Suit guy was beginning to look... worryingly familiar. While it had been absolute ages since she had last played FFVII, Crisis Core was a bit more recent. And with the better graphics and all... "I'm going for the theater and the world's best retail. And the weaponry, can't forget that."

"You are not... also interested in working for ShinRa?" the suit asked after a moment had passed.

"Mmm," Roxanne stalled for a moment. There was only so much that could be going on, after all. "I have a, shall we say _, professional_ interest in leveling materia," she began, hoping it was the right response. "Mastered natural materia are far superior to their artificial counterparts," Roxanne continued, "though leveling them is much more time-consuming than creating an artificial one from scratch. It is a potentially... profitable line of work for me."

At this point Roxanne shifted in her seat and shrugged. "Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, it is time-consuming, requires a great deal of travel, and more or less isn't the sort of thing someone can do while being trapped in a 9 to 5."

Mastered materia, aside from being hella powerful, were also incredibly rare and expensive as hell. Gaining a supplier for them seemed like something the Turks would be all over. Definitely more valuable than recruiting a low-level monster hunter into Deepground or whatever the hell they were recruiting people into these days. _Damn it, crazy box guy was onto something._

The suit guy nodded at her explanation, looking intrigued almost against his will. After a moment he held out a business card to her. "If you are looking for a buyer," he said, "I might be interested."

"Thank you." Roxanne accepted the card gingerly. "Any particular requests?"

"Status effects, particularly sleep, would be of interest," he said.

"Can do," Roxanne said, tucking the card away. It only had a number on it. "And who should I be asking for?"

The suit's lips twitched upwards. "Tseng," he said.

 _Well, that fucking figures. Who did I piss off in a past life?_ Roxanne wondered. She smiled at him carefully, making sure to cover her teeth. "I'm Roxanne and this is Cloud. We're pleased to meet you."

"When you get to Midgar," Tseng said, smiling back at her just as carefully, "I recommend staying at the Red Hearts hotel. It is much... nicer than its name implies. For the next week all guests there receive complimentary VIP seating at the new performance of LOVELESS. You might enjoy it."

Roxanne hummed. "I believe I might," she murmured in agreement. "Thank you for the tip."

"My pleasure," Tseng said, turning away.

On her other side Cloud had managed to lift his head up and was giving her a wary look. Roxanne shrugged and mimed zipping her lips. Eventually, Cloud nodded.

The sky was dark when they finally arrived in Midgar, though the bright lamps made it difficult to tell that it was truly nighttime. Most of their fellow passengers headed for the entrance to the Lower Plate, but Roxanne nudged Cloud towards the one that led up. Any hotel recommended by Tseng was bound to be fancy, after all. Especially if staying included free LOVELESS performances.

The duo's clothes got them a few strange looks as they wandered about the Upper Plate, but most lost interest the moment they noticed that Roxanne and Cloud were armed. Roxanne's black dress and tan overcoat combination could not have been mistaken for any sort of uniform any more than Cloud's thoroughly beaten sweater and trousers. However, ShinRa military _were_ well known for their occasionally... eccentric mannerisms, when off duty. So. It was a possibility.

Anyways, if the two _were_ troublemakers, ShinRa would handle them regardless.

A helpful blonde lady stopped to give the duo directions, and they stumbled into their hotel. The two of them were tired and filthy and heavily armed, but the other guests didn't even raise an eyebrow at them.

Instead, it was the receptionist looked over the pair of them carefully, her eyes lingering on Cloud's ridiculously spiky hair. "Reservation under Strife?" she asked, her voice neutral.

"That'd be us," Roxanne agreed. So Tseng had made reservations for them? That was pretty ballsey of the guy. She couldn't fault his choice, though - it made checking in far easier than it could of been otherwise. And besides, Roxanne preferred getting the carrot over the stick any day.

"Your rooms are ready," the receptionist said, holding out a pair of card keys. Apparently they had already been paid for as well, unless Midgar hotels took your money afterwards instead of before. "Will you be needing concierge service today, ma'am?"

"Perhaps tomorrow," Roxanne said. "We just got in from the Western Continent and will be needing a bit of rest, first."

The receptionist nodded. "Please enjoy your stay."

Cloud gazed all about them with wide-eyed wonder as a porter showed them to their rooms. When Roxanne tried to tip him, the porter refused to accept the money, citing in-house rules. Roxanne shrugged - it was no skin off her nose if the guy didn't want to make an extra couple of gil.

"So..." Cloud asked, collapsing into the softest bed he had ever experienced in his entire life.

"Yeah," Roxanne answered, not really saying anything. She shuffled around her bed, finally throwing the comforter back. Damned heavy thing. Better quality than most, though. "That guy I was talking to on the bus?" she continued finally, "I'm pretty sure he was one of the Turks. They do... recruitment, sometimes, for SOLDIER."

"Recruitment?" Cloud asked, a note of eager hope in his voice.

"I guess you impressed someone, kiddo," Roxanne said, peeling her boots off before collapsing onto the denuded mattress.

The room was probably bugged. She would have to be very careful about what she said. While only a complete and utter lunatic would assume that she was from an alternative universe where their entire world was a video game, Roxanne still knew more than enough to get herself, ah, _eliminated_ , if the Turks were to become aware of it. So it was better if they didn't.

Warning Cloud off SOLDIER was probably not the best of ideas at that particular moment. Roxanne probably could have changed his mind with the "involuntary human experiments" bit, but that was the most classified of classified information and even then the Turks weren't the type to take "no" for an answer -

She should have told Cloud about ShinRa's dirty little secrets _before_ they left Junon, peace and quiet be damned -

"And I just got the first customer for my new materia business," Roxanne continued, cutting her train of thought short. Regrets solved nothing. And Cloud would be safer in SOLDIER proper than outside of it, now that they were on the Turk's radar.

"You never mentioned that before," Cloud said, sounding annoyed.

"It was a new idea," Roxanne replied. "Monster hunting doesn't have a retirement plan, remember? I can make a shit-ton of money by leveling up materia and selling them, on top of the usual take. I happen to have designs on a nice little vacation house in Costa del Sol. I can just picture myself kicking around there when I'm old and grey, terrorizing the lifeguards and the speedo crowd..."

Cloud snorted at her. That seemed to be his usual reaction whenever she said something ridiculous. He was still a brat, though, so Roxanne threw a pillow at his head. In the resulting pillow-fight, Cloud forgot all about his questions regarding the 'little bro' comment from before.

  



	3. In Which We Meet Ronan

The next morning Roxanne was once again questioning her sanity. Cloud had already left for ShinRa HQ, to take the SOLDIER exam, and Roxanne had wished him luck. She figured if worse came to worse she could always kidnap him and rent them a room at the Chocobo Sage's place in the Northern Continent.

It was hard to imagine anyone finding them _there_ , after all. What with the crazy weather and the strongest monsters in the world and all. She would like to see it one day, she supposed.

Though, with Cloud gone, Roxanne was alone. In a fancy hotel. On the Upper Plate. In Midgar. Under Turk surveillance. Of course, surveillance you knew about was better than surveillance you weren't expecting, but still. Creeeeepy.

Roxanne lay against the sinfully comfortable mattress and supposed that she could try to fix things before they went all to hell. It seemed as if Genesis and Angeal hadn't defected yet, as the Wutai war was still going strong and propaganda posters of the two were still posted everywhere. Sephiroth was still sane, Jenovah hadn't woken up yet.

ShinRa was still killing the planet with their mako-extraction plants, of course. Hojo was still having people abducted into Deepground, and the original AVALANCHE was probably doing much the same thing with their Ravens program... Vincent was still asleep in his coffin in Nibelheim, awaiting his redemption arc. 

But, were any of these things her problems to fix? Heroes were all well and good in video games and comics, but when people started trying for those sorts of things in real life... You ended up with crazed zealots and mountains of corpses, not to mention the economic damage (which usually took more lives, anyway.) Change worked best from the bottom up, or from the inside out. There was less of a body count.

If anyone could successfully overturn the system, in other words, it would be someone like the current head of Urban Development and the future director of WRO and not a no-name monster-hunter alien. Of course, without prompting, would Reeve ever actually make the attempt to overthrow the current order?

Roxanne rolled over onto her front, hiding her face in the pillow. She punched the bed. Lightly, though, so as not the break the damn thing.

She was not a hero. She wasn't even an antihero. This wasn't her world, and its problems weren't her problems. They were also better solved by someone else. Cosmo Canyon, and then home, was her goal. Futile attempts at heroism didn't enter into the equation. Gaia would eat her alive, if she let it.

 _I can always break into the ShinRa mansion and rescue Vincent if I need to find a hero for this particular piece,_ Roxanne mused. The mansion might not even be occupied - all she would need to do would be to whisper, _"Sephiroth needs you,"_ in his ear and...

Well. That might work. Of course, the mansion probably had a CC-TV surveillance system in place, but without the internet... Oh, wait - _hell,_ that was right. There might be no internet like at home, but ShinRa had something similar just for them. What the hell was it called again...?

 _Goddammit. It was the thing that the one kid could jump into, like that cartoon show... Ah, fuck it._ She'd remember the name eventually.

Gradually, Roxanne clawed her way out of bed. If she actually wanted to try rescuing Vincent without getting herself marked as an enemy of ShinRa... she would need some sort of disguise. An obvious solution occurred to her then, and Roxanne's expression morphed into a shit-eating grin.

She had some shopping to do.

The hotel employees looked decidedly nervous as Roxanne exited the lobby cackling. She took the shuttle to the Lower Plate and headed straight for Wall Market. She had played this part of the game about three-hundred times or so, just for kicks. Even after so long, she had every step damn well _memorized._ Roxanne would be going for something a bit different, of course, but... The basic setup should be nearly the same.

"I need a binder to cut down a bit on my bust size," Roxanne explained to the bulky figure in front of her. "My shoulders are wide enough to pass, but I'm going to need to disguise my breasts and waist. Do you know a place around her where I can find some good gear?"

"Hahaha!" the figure laughed, as bombastic as Beautiful Bro had been in the game. "We have what you need! But first, a challenge! Defeat me in the ring, and I will help you on your quest for manliness!"

Roxanne grinned at guy in front of her. "Terms?" she asked, putting one hand on her hip, her legs splayed apart in a confident, commanding stance. If box-guy's life-force absorption theory was correct, she was probably at a higher level than anyone in the city save Second-Class SOLDIERs and up. The monsters around Midgar were _weak,_ after all.

"First one to complete twenty squats wins!" the guy said.

Roxanne shook her head, bemused at how closely the FFVII world matched what the game developers had come up with. "Agreed," she stated.

In the end Roxanne won, of course, with several seconds to spare. True to his word, her opponent handed her a shaping harness that looked to be just her size.

"Thank you," Roxanne purred as she accepted the harness.

"No..." the guy said, shaking his finger, "that's not how we say 'thanks,' here, _man._ "

"I mean," Roxanne coughed, dropping her voice an octave. _"Thank you,"_ she said again, this time in a gruff and husky tone.

"Much better," her opponent smirked. "The ladies will be all over you by the time we're done."

Roxanne grinned awkwardly in response.

By late afternoon Roxanne had drained Wall Market's bartering system dry. Her classic watch, handsome cologne, black hairband, silk suit, shaping harness and special underwear should be enough for her to pass as a guy. Even to the Turks, if she was lucky.

Roxanne ducked into a changing stall at the gym and struggled into her new outfit. She examined herself critically in the mirror, adjusting the tie. It needed a little... She threw her overcoat over the suit jacket, donned her gauntlets and gave the resulting image a thumbs up. "Hello, Ronan, you're looking good today." Short, androgynous, badass, and _good._

Ronan was the subject of many wolf-whistles as he exited the changing room. The monster-hunter did a slow pirouette, shaking hands with his wonderful new friends and thanking them for their help.

"Don't sweat it, man," the guy from before said, this time in a much more normal manner. "It was fun. You enjoy your night out."

Ronan strode out into the streets of Wall Market. His clothes attracted the attention of a few pickpockets, but a glimpse of the gauntlets was usually enough to put any would-be thieves off. The adults who actually tried robbing him got thrown neatly over his shoulder or otherwise joint-locked into submission.

The kids he would give a handful of gil to. Their lives were hard enough already without throwing potential traumatic brain injuries into the mix.

Ronan headed for the shuttle to the Upper Plate, humming . Roxanne hadn't seen a single Turk that entire day. That didn't necessarily mean anything, of course, but he liked to think that they had more important things to do than to follow him - or _her_ \- around. After all, AVALANCHE should be up to no good right about now, if what little he remembered about Before Crisis was correct.

A teenage girl in a pink dress bumped into him shortly before he arrived, and he reached out to steady her. "Are you alright, Miss?" Ronan asked, his voice in the same masculine tone that Roxanne had used earlier at the gym.

"I'm fine, thank you," the girl said, recovering her balance. Her grip tightened on the basketful of flowers she was carrying, and she began trying to edge away from him.

Noticing the girl's discomfort, Ronan quickly let her go. He took a step back to give her more room, and she immediately relaxed. "Ah, good, good," he said awkwardly.

The Lower Plates didn't _seem_ to mind crossdressing much, and Ronan was pretty sure he could pass to most people, so maybe -

The undercity was a dangerous place for young girls, Ronan reminded himself. Especially ones walking alone. She was right to be cautious of strangers.

"Oh, um..." the girl started to say, uneasily. She paused a moment, taking in Ronan's attire. "Would you like to buy a flower?" she asked, holding up her flower basket to display her wares. She had apparently deemed him harmless.

"Hmm," Ronan said, squinting at the flowers. He did want to field test his new outfit at the theater... It wouldn't hurt to class up his appearance a bit more. "I don't suppose you have floral tape and a pin?" he asked.

"I do!" the girl said. "Boutonnieres cost extra, though."

"That's alright," Ronan said with a laugh. "How much?"

"Fifty gil," the girl said.

Ronan paid the gil and watched the girl assemble the boutonniere, cutting the flower stems short and wrapping them up with the floral tape. He carefully pinned the impromptu work of art to the lapel of his suit jacket. "Thank you," he said with a smile, looking at the flowers. It was a very nice arrangement. Made him pine for his florist days, almost.

"Will you be needing a corsage as well?" the girl asked hopefully.

"Ah, not tonight," Ronan answered awkwardly. Roxanne might want one for another performance, he supposed, but he wasn't sure how to mention that without either coming out as a crossdresser or pretending to be his own twin.

Actually, thinking of the theater was giving him an idea. "Have you heard about the LOVELESS performances on the Upper Plate?" he asked the flower girl. "You might be able to get quite a bit of business there."

The girl looked awkward at this suggestion. "I, ah," she hesitated. "The ticket is 100 gil to get to the Upper Plate," she finally said.

Ronan looked at the girl carefully. If she wasn't Aerith Gainsborough, then down was up and the sun revolved around the earth. "Tell you what," he said. "I'm planning on seeing the performance at least once more, and would like," here he tapped the boutonniere on his chest, "another one of these. How about I just pay you in advance for it?"

"You would do that?" Probably-Aerith looked up at him hopefully.

"I support small businesses when I can," Ronan said with a carefully careless shrug. "I'm something of an entrepreneur myself, and us smalltimers have to stick together."

Ronan had an extra ticket to the play, and he debated offering it to her. _Probably not a good idea_ , he decided. It might imply something... unfortunate, and he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable again. Instead he simply handed Probably-Aerith the gil and watched her face light up in delight.

"Have you been to the Upper Plate before?" Ronan asked curiously.

"Only on special occasions," Probably-Aerith answered, clutching at the money like it was something precious. It probably was, come to think of it. Gil was hard to get ahold of, in the slums.

"Hmm. It looks nice," Ronan said. "I'm from the Western Continent, and we don't have anything like it over there."

"You're a traveler?" Probably-Aerith asked, glancing up at him shyly from under her eyelashes.

"I'd like to travel all of Gaia one day," Ronan said by way of response. "There's just so much to see." Not that that was likely to happen of course, unless Bugenhagen turned out to be a dud. Worse came to worse, Roxanne would just have to take up materia refining like she had told Tseng she would.

Maybe they would get a beachhouse in Mideel to match the one in Costa del Sol.

Probably-Aerith smiled at that, ruefully. "I've never even been outside of Midgar," she said.

"If you ever get the chance, you should go see the Northern Continent and stay at the Icicle Inn," Ronan said thoughtfully. He thought that was somewhere around where Gast's old laboratory and home used to be, and Aerith deserved to know something of her history. "It's fiercely beautiful country, and about as different from Midgar as it's possible to be. The monsters are terrible, though, I have to warn you."

"I think one of the benefits of living in Midgar is that even under the Plate, SOLDIER takes care of the monsters," Probably-Aerith said, hunching her shoulders.

Ronan smirked. "I'm a professional monster-hunter," he said, adjusting one of his gauntlets so that it reflected the dim light. "SOLDIER tends to be bad for business. I prefer going where they're not."

"But-" Probably-Aerith straightened up, looking him in the eye. "Isn't that blood money? Profiting off the dead, doesn't that-" _disturb you,_ was probably what she was going to finish with.

Ronan shrugged. "If you look at it in a certain way, I'm both avenging the fallen and preventing that monster from killing more people," he said. "I won't lie - I'm in this line of work for the money," _and the power,_ he added to himself,"but what I do also helps others."

Probably-Aerith stared at him as if he had grown a second head, but didn't argue. Thankfully, the arrival of the shuttle saved them from future conversation. They sat in silence for the short ride upwards.

"Thanks again," Probably-Aerith said when they arrived at the Upper Plate.

"No problem, kid," Ronan waved her off. "You go make a killing selling flowers."

Probably-Aerith bit her lip, staring at him in indecision for a few moments. Then, without saying another word, she nodded and disappeared into the crowd.

Ronan shrugged. He certainly hadn't asked to be introduced to half the game cast. And the younger, idealistic ones at that. Fuck, even _Tseng_ was young and idealistic still, wasn't he? "I'm getting too old for this shit," Ronan muttered, rubbing at the corners of his eyes. "And I'm not even thirty yet."

He sighed, adjusting his tie. He had a show to go see, and not too much time to spare. _Time to see what all this "LOVELESS" hype is all about,_ Ronan thought to himself, striding off into the night.

  


* * *

  


In case the tenses were confusing you: past and future were "she" and "Roxanne." Present was "he" and "Ronan." "They" will also sometimes be used sometimes when referring to both gender identities at once, but for the most part "she" or "he" will be default.

  



	4. In Which Ronan (Sort-Of) Gets a Date and Roxanne is a Munchkin

Ronan felt vaguely guilty after slipping past Tseng at the entrance to the theater. The Turk was obviously waiting for someone, and he was pretty certain that someone was Roxanne. _Well,_ Ronan thought as the usher showed him to his seat, _he'll get his chance to talk to her again later._

Whatever else he was, Baby-Tseng wasn't too much of a terrible person. Yet. At least where Aerith was concerned. Of course, he was still a murdering Turk that regularly sent innocent people into situations that were worse than death, and all -

_On second thought,_ Ronan supposed, _maybe it would be better if Roxanne disappeared for a bit._ It wasn't like she or Cloud had left anything at the hotel, after all. All he would need to do would be to text Cloud, make sure that the kid was alright, and then make his goodbyes over the phone.

Idly, Ronan flipped open his PHS. There were no messages or missed calls. Given the hour, that seemed a bit strange. Ronan frowned and sent a quick text to Cloud asking him if everything had gone alright. 

His PHS buzzed immediately afterwards, and Ronan activated the screen. _'Am fine - passed the exam :D!!! Sorry didn't call - met a new friend. Going out for drinks to celebrate. Meet us there? - C.'_

Ronan raised an eyebrow at the screen. Emoticons didn't seem like Cloud's style, but what the hell did he know? _'Congrats! :D,'_ Ronan typed in reply. _'Srry, cn't meet up - am at theater. Will prob be back late 2.'_

_'Date???'_ Cloud texted back.

Ronan stared at the screen for nearly a minute, trying to figure out a way to respond. _'Ima cuddle-whore,'_ he finally decided on. _'Dn't h8 the plyr, h8 the game >:3.'_

It was probably not the best of times for Ronan to try and explain exactly where he stood on the ace-spectrum. Especially since Cloud had been so kind as to give him a nicely plausible excuse for not coming back that night. He still kind of wanted to, though.

"Sir," a voice spoke suddenly from Ronan's right, startling him badly. "The show is about to start. I'm going to have to ask you to turn off your PHS."

Ronan turned to the usher and smiled, shutting the phone off. The usher smiled back and returned to his duties, cautioning other playgoers in the same way.

Several minutes later, the lights dimmed and the curtains dropped. The show was about to begin. Ronan leaned forward in his seat in eager anticipation.

_"When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end_  
_The goddess descends from the sky,_  
_Wings of light and dark spread afar_  
_She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting,"_  


The first act began in earnest. Three friends sought the Gift of the Goddess, fighting the world and then each other in their quest for it. Love, sadness, betrayal and vengeance appeared to the be story's main themes, with a running undercurrent of despair and hope.

It seemed as if it had been years since the play started, it seemed as if no time had passed at all - and then the curtain went up on the final scene.

_"My soul, corrupted by vengeance_  
_Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey_  
_In my own salvation_  
_And your eternal slumber,"_  


The prisoner said, kneeling at the corpse of his dead friend. He wiped the blood from the hero's face, bowing his head low. Then he turned his head towards the skies.

_"Legend shall speak_  
_of sacrifice at world's end._  
_... Even if the morrow is barren of promises_  
_Nothing shall forestall my return."_

The prisoner's eyes closed and the curtains dropped in a thunder of applause. Ronan wholeheartedly joined in, his head in that strange space it found after getting way too into a story.

It was strange, but the play had reminded Ronan quite a bit of the FFVII plotline itself, come to think of it. Three friends, three roles, and three endings. The wanderer, the prisoner, and the hero... _Aerith, Cloud and Zack,_ Ronan mused. It fit.

Yes, Aerith was a good match for the wanderer, who had fled from his duty and later sacrificed himself for the good of the world. His story matched how the last of the Ancients had attempted to avoid her Ancient heritage at first, and how after her journey of self-discovery she willingly sacrificed herself in order to gain the full power of the White Materia and stop Meteor from destroying Gaia.

Cloud Strife, who had been experimented on for so long by goddamn Hojo and only set free by the sacrifice and later love of another was a good match for the prisoner. He had lost so much... Hopefully the younger Cloud would never have to go through those ordeals.

And the hero, the one who lost everything, even his life, bringing salvation and hope to others... He was so very much like the Zack Fair they had come to know through Crisis Core.

It was just so fucking _sad,_ Ronan thought, blinking away tears. The noise slowly died down, and from somewhere behind him, Ronan heard a loud sigh.

"They keep cutting out lines," a man sitting in the row behind Ronan complained. "It completely changes the message behind the story's ending."

"Any time you change a story's format," Ronan said, still looking straight ahead, "you're going to change the message of it. And people have always interpreted stories any which way they like."

"Hmm," the man said. "That's true enough, I suppose. You liked the play, I take it?"

"Yes," Ronan said with a nod. "It's a very good story, ending included. Though, some of the characters are eerily similar to people I know."

"You, too, huh?" the man drawled. "Here I thought it was just me."

At that, Ronan finally turned to look at his neighbor. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of Genesis Rhapsodos, dressed in his trademark full-on red leather, legs splayed wide open. Genesis was grinning at him. Ronan's jaw dropped a tad before he regained control of himself.

Genesis' eyes flickered down and then up again, sweeping over what little of Ronan's frame was visible. Ronan's heart thudded in his chest and his whole body tingled. He was very, _very_ rarely attracted to anyone, but Genesis Rhapsodos seemed to be the exception.

"So," Genesis purred, leaning closer. "Which character do you identify with?"

"The wanderer, I suppose," Ronan said, his lips twitching upwards. Was Genesis actually flirting with him? _Oh, god. Oh crap._ "I'm afraid I'm not exactly hero material."

"That's all right," Genesis said, "I can be hero enough for the both of us."

Ronan couldn't stop himself from laughing at that one.

Genesis looked mildly offended before shaking his head. "That bad?" he asked wryly, taking Ronan's reaction in good humor.

"A bit heavy-handed," Ronan replied, shaking his head with a grin. That was a _terrible_ pick-up line. "Especially for a first meeting."

"What about on the second?" Genesis raised his eyebrows this time.

"Smooth," Ronan said. "Very smooth. Much better."

"I'm Genesis Rhapsodos, SOLDIER First Class," Genesis introduced himself, holding out his hand for Ronan to shake.

"Ronan, freelance monster-hunter," Ronan said. When he reached out his hand, the SOLDIER captured it and lifted it up to examine Ronan's gauntlet.

"Martial artist, I take it?" Genesis asked, tracing his fingers over the mythril plates.

"Of sorts," Ronan shrugged. He could feel himself beginning to flush. "Mostly I just hit things."

"Hmm," Genesis finally let go. "That's too bad," he said sadly, angling his head so that he stared at Ronan through his eyelashes.

Ronan unobtrusively placed his hand back at his side. "You have something against hitting things?" he asked. Genesis' grip had been... not tight, exactly, but absurdly strong. If push came to shove, Genesis could easily overpower him. The thought was more appealing than it should have been.

"SOLDIER is always looking for talented recruits," Genesis explained, his lips curling upward. "The higher-ups favor swordsmen, unfortunately. It would have been nice to have a fellow theatergoer alongside us. The others there have no appreciation for culture."

Okay, that was _definitely_ smooth. And it was a terrible, terrible idea, but - "I can give you my number?" Ronan offered, almost against his will. "In case you're in need of moral support."

"I would like that," Genesis agreed softly.

Ronan felt dizzy after leaving the theater. He shouldn't have done that. It wasn't the worst idea he had ever had, but it definitely came close. He had a plan, didn't he? There was supposed to be a plan. The plan was important. More important than a stupidly pretty, arrogant, artistic bastard who knew how to kick ass and take names.

_That was Genesis frickin' Rhapsodos, wasn't it?_ Ronan mused idly. ShinRa's Red Commander, the one who was about to - if he wasn't already in the middle of it - wage a brutal campaign against Wutai for the sake of his company's economic profit.

The guy who went nuts, and took half of SOLDIER with him to get themselves experimented on and turned into clones. Taking Angeal and later Sephiroth with him on his journey into crazy.

_Fucking hell,_ Ronan thought. _He's almost worse than Tseng. Though,_ he supposed, _it's not like I have to pick up when this one calls. He probably hits on random people all the time._ Genesis would probably forget all about Ronan within a week, if he was lucky. (It would also save Ronan the trouble of explaining about Roxanne. And that they happened to come with a vagina and boobs.)

_Goddammit,_ Ronan thought. _So far I've been in freakin' Gaia of all places for almost a month, and I've somehow managed to run across Cloud goddamn Strife, Tseng of the mother-fucking Turks, Aerith heroic-sacrifice Gainsborough, and now Genesis freakin' Rhapsodos._

The hell with waiting until the next day, Ronan thought. He was going to leave Midgar that night before he stumbled across _Sephiroth._

Ronan took the shuttle down to the Lower Plate and strolled through the streets until he found the central hub that led to the different sectors. Ronan headed for the gate to Sector Five, dodging around a group of drunken laughing people as he did so.

A shock of yellow hair in an unmistakable style stumbled past him, supported by a bulky young man in a blue uniform. It seemed that one Cloud Strife had already met one Zackary Fair. Ronan watched them until they disappeared. Ronan closed his eyes, wishing the young man well.

They had only known each other for three weeks and had avoided talking about anything personal like the plague during that time. Still, it was difficult to risk your life alongside someone, trusting them to have your back, and not end up becoming friends. Even if that friendship was rooted in long silences and mutual snark.

From what Ronan could tell, Cloud wasn't necessarily... the best at making friends, or keeping them. He was probably expecting Roxanne to suddenly waltz on out of his life, probably had been expecting it since the moment he had decided to stick around with her and learn a few things. Even when you were expecting it, having people abandon you still hurt. A lot. But... having Zack around as a distraction... it would probably help Cloud quite a bit.

They would have had to leave Cloud behind either way, after all. While Ronan would have preferred an actual goodbye first, he had already managed to freak himself out to the point where he wasn't willing to go back to the hotel.

They had been alright deceiving with Tseng on the bus, but there was a world of difference between acting normally in a casual situation and willingly walking into an assassin's territory and lying to his face. The first wasn't that far removed from what Ronan did most days, the second was a bit much for him.

Ronan wandered towards the gate that led out of the Lower Plate, absently throwing off attempted muggers and weak-level monsters as he went. There were a few things he should probably pick up before he went to the Western Continent that would make his life immeasurably easier, just in case. Roxanne had told Tseng that she was in the materia refining business, after all, and it wouldn't do to appear to be a liar, would it?

By the time he stumbled into Kalm, Ronan was dead tired. He had let himself be attacked by ShinRa's fiddly little tanks in order to learn _Matra Magic,_ and had quite a bit of fun using his new magic missiles of doom to annihilate everything else that bothered him in a single strike. He had managed to drain his MP nearly dry in the process, but the sheer destruction he had rained as a result had been worth it.

Blowing shit up was a wonderful form of stress relief, it seemed.

The inn was still open when Ronan arrived, thankfully, and after getting his room he collapsed into an exhausted sleep. It was late the next morning when the beeping of his PHS woke him up.

_'Where r u? R u ok?'_ the text from Cloud asked.

_'Fine,'_ Ronan typed. _'Ran into a bit of trouble, tho. Had to get out of Midgar. Srry ddn't say goodbye.'_

_'WHAT???'_

_'Turk was creepin'.'_ Ronan typed. _'Freaked me out.'_

_'But ur ok?'_ After getting the first text, the PHS buzzed immediately afterwards with a second one. _'What happnd 2 ur date?'_

_'Got numbr.'_ Ronan couldn't help but smirk. _'Had a LOVELESS connection :D.'_

_'Old ppl romance D:'_

_'Brat >:3'_

_'Did you stick me with the hotel bill...? :('_

_'Already paid for. If not, sneak out window. Ur SOLDIER now, remember? Can do that stuff'_

_'Am on 8th floor o.O;'_

_'Sneak out front door then. ;p'_

The phone went silent. Ronan pulled off his now filthy and ruined suit, undoing the harness and gear. He folded each piece up as best he could, frowning at the damage. It had been a lovely outfit while it had lasted.

Finally, Roxanne stood naked in the hotel room. She breathed quietly for a moment, just processing all that had happened in the past few days. "Not dead yet," she said to herself, "so I must not be doing too bad."

Roxanne pulled on her new monster-hunting gear, this time with actual _pants,_ hallelujah, and wandered out into Kalm. She had breakfast in the nearby pub - there was no meat in Gaia, apparently, and so she had greasy "mash" (fried mashed vegetables of some sort) and real eggs and a cup of strong and bitter coffee. Roxanne devoured the whole thing with relish - the food in Junon had been almost disgustingly healthy, and it was nice to have something different for a change.

As she chewed on a particularly crispy piece of fried vegetable, Roxanne overheard a few of the locals complaining about the increased monster attacks at the Mythril Mine. Security, it seemed, was not doing its job. _Hmm... There_ was a thought. But first...

After she paid for her breakfast, Roxanne wandered the town. She gazed in interest at the picturesque buildings that surrounded her, looking for one in particular. Her gaze was caught by an old-looking stone tower that stood in the backyard of one of the houses. It was ugly, an eyesore, and... familiar.

Roxanne considered the tower for a moment before striding towards it. Her demeanor was confident, casual, implying that she had every right to be there. The door wasn't locked, and so Roxanne opened it easily, going up the stairwell. At the top, sure enough, was a chest. And inside...

Roxanne lifted the Peacemaker, holding it up to the light. Even with the gauntlets, it fit her hands nicely. Experimentally, she wrapped her index finger around the trigger and nodded. The grip was perfect. She could _use_ the damned thing.

A quick check revealed that the safety was turned on, and so Roxanne then tucked the barrel of her new gun into the back of her pants. She adjusted her overcoat slightly so as to disguise the distinctive bulge. She would have to get some kind of holster for it later, after getting it checked out by a professional.

Guns in Gaia were different from guns back home (not having to reload was strange, but welcome), but still. Roxanne didn't know what kind of condition the Peacemaker's inner workings were in, and she wanted to make sure that it wouldn't blow up on her before taking it out into the field.

It was a definite plus that FFVII's limitations on equipment didn't carry over to Actual Gaia. Roxanne could (and already had) equipped multiple armlets, and was planning on adding even more. Where the "armlet" was located on her body had no effect on whether or not she could use the materia in it, so long as it was close enough to her skin. Adding in a gun or two shouldn't be a problem.

She needed a secondary weapon, anyway. Like Ronan had told Genesis - they weren't really a martial artist. Roxanne had some self-defense training (her ability to use terrain in her favor was one of her main advantages) and some random bits of different arts that she had picked up and remembered, but the martial arts of Earth were meant for fighting _humans_ and not _monsters_. So mostly she just hit things. Repeatedly.

Swords were a definite no-go. Roxanne had tried fencing for a single semester, back in her undergrad days. While she wasn't the worst fencer in the club, she was still pretty bad at it. Part of that was probably because she had tried to learn how to fence with her left hand, _when she wasn't even left-handed,_ but still. It wasn't something she'd bet her life on.

No, Roxanne felt much more confident with a gun than a sword. _And, the Peacemaker has double AP growth,_ she added with a grin. _That_ was certainly going to come in handy later. It would make mastering materia, _much, much,_ quicker than would otherwise be the case. An excellent investment for a small business owner. Especially since it was _free_.

Roxanne carefully closed the chest and made her way down the stairwell. Within seconds she was back on the street, no one even looking at her twice.

The Kalm Materia Store was Roxanne's next stop. Her new Poison and Heal, as well as her trusty Ice, were all slotted into the Peacemaker to take advantage of its high growth rate. It would still take a while to level them of course, but still... Any little bit helped. Steal and Sense were popped into one of her multiple armlets.

_Enemy Skill, Restore, Ice, Heal, Poison, Steal and Sense,_ Roxanne listed off. It wasn't a bad set-up at all, though she definitely had a few solid additions in mind. Some of them were even on _this_ side of the ocean, even. _Hell, this could even be fun,_ she thought.

Roxanne fed a bit of energy into the Sense, using herself as the target. _Level 17. HP 700, MP 200. Strength 27, Dexterity 33, Vitality 27, Magic 40, Spirit 40._ There were no data for attack and defense and so forth. Though, she did get the sense that she would only have to kill a few more monsters to gain an extra level.

_Level 17,_ Roxanne thought slowly. _And I already have_ Matra Magic. Well. If this were the video game, then level 17 would be right around the point she'd take Cloud and co. to the swamps and go hunting for the Midgar Zolom. _Beta_ was a wonderful spell, very powerful in the early levels, and learnable by way of the Enemy Skill materia. Level 17s had high enough spirit most times to survive it.

However... This was not the game. There was no "restart" option if she failed miserably and died. And unlike her monster hunting before, this time she was alone. And not, you know, incredibly desperate just to earn enough money to survive.

Though, with the items she had found and the Peacemaker... "Hmm," Roxanne hummed, considering. _Eh, what the fuck._ She had always been a bit on the reckless side. _Beta_ was worth the risk.

The next day, fully equipped and with an actual gun belt and holster for her now cleaned and tuned gun, Roxanne headed south.

She made sure to pick up the Chocobo Lure and a few different types of greens at the Chocobo guy's place, just in case she wouldn't be able to come back, and then headed into the swamp.

It was every bit as... wonderful... as Roxanne had expected. The muck and dirt and heat and _smell_ pressed into her from all sides, soaking her pants and overcoat and sinking into her boots. There was no way she would be able to maneuver in it, unless she got to higher ground.

_Well, fuck,_ Roxanne thought, fighting to keep her boots on as she took another step. _Should have gone for a Chocobo, I suppose._ They were enormous ostrich-like bird-things, but riding one couldn't be too different from riding a horse... right?

Gradually, Roxanne fought her way to an atoll that gently sloped above the fetid swamp waters. She flopped across it, bringing her PHS up to check the World Map again. She was already halfway through the swamp, and _still_ no Midgar Zolom.

_C'mon, brain,_ she prodded herself. In the game you couldn't go more than three steps without getting attacked by one of the giant serpents. _There has to be some sort of in-game reason for this fuckery._ All she had to do was think. Roxanne blew a sigh, adjusting her holster so the Peacemaker stopped digging itself into her hip.

Her PHS buzzed, signaling an incoming message. _'Turk was looking for you,'_ Cloud had sent. _'Told him you had business out of Midgar.'_

_'Thx kid'_ Roxanne replied.

She composed a quick message to the number the Turk had given her and sent it. _'Tseng, did you have a request for me? - R'_ There was no point in burning bridges, after all, and it would be much easier to hold up her front over text besides.

Tseng replied instantly. _'Yes. One of my coworkers expressed an interest in a mastered Barrier. Would you be able to procure one?'_

_'I'd have to pick one up from the Western Continent, first,'_ Roxanne typed slowly. _'It might take several months before it's mastered.'_

_'Acceptable. Price?'_

Roxanne stared at the PHS for a moment. How much did the thing sell for, again...? _'70k'_ she slowly typed.

The PHS was silent for several minutes before buzzing again. ' _He agrees.'_ Tseng had sent.

Roxanne deflated. She had just done her first business deal. _'Pleasure doing business with you.'_ she texted back politely.

_'Likewise.'_ Tseng concluded.

And that was that. She was officially an under-the-table contractor for the Turks. _Goddammit._

It was at this time that Roxanne noticed the swaying of the reeds. There was something moving. And moving towards _her._

Roxanne stood up, unholstering her Peacemaker and holding it at the ready. She charged up her Poison materia, preparing to cast _Bio._ The Midgar Zolom had finally arrived.

Roxanne swallowed as the serpent came into sight. It was at least a hundred feet long, and as wide as a truck table. Its tongue flickered out as it approached the atoll, and it raised its front-most section upwards into the air. Its beady eyes were trained on her.

She reached into one of her coat pockets, grabbed a tranquilizer and drank it down. The item would cut physical and magic damage, which would increase her odds of surviving _Beta._ Then, she cast _Bio._

A noxious green cloud appeared over the serpent's head, droplets of poison raining down upon it. It drew back, hissing in what was probably disgust, if giant serpents felt disgust. _Sense_ told Roxanne that her opponent was level 26, had an HP of 4,000 and was now poisoned.

Roxanne took a deep breath and began bombarding the thing with _Matra Magic_ after _Matra Magic,_ missiles forming mid-air and streaking towards the enormous creature. Shockwaves erupted as they detonated on impact.

The Zolom lunged forward in an attempt to bite her, but she flipped out of the way, shooting it repeatedly with the Peacemaker as she kept chain-casting.

The serpent struck her with its next blow, its tail scything unavoidably through the air and catching her dead in the chest. Roxanne was knocked off of the atoll and backwards into the swamp.

She immediately cast _Cure2_ on herself, bringing her HP back to full. _Sense_ told her that the Zolom's HP was almost at a quarter of where it originally was. _Bio_ was doing its job.

Roxanne took a deep breath and cast _Ice2,_ a frozen javelin of water forming and hurling itself at the serpent. Its HP dropped sharply, and - !

The monster serpent's enormous mouth unhinged, and from it a wall of fire emerged.

Roxanne couldn't help screaming when it hit her, blinding agony robbing her of her ability to move. Her exposed skin reddened and twisted, blisters forming instantly in the attack's wake. Her pants and shirt shriveled in the heat, sending up the noxious chemical stink of burned synthetics. 

_Cure2_ and then _Cure2_ again, and she was able to stand. The blisters and sores were gone, the pain already a too-fresh memory. Her outfit was beyond recovering, unfortunately. And she was out of MP.

The Zolom slid forward, hissing softly, but Roxanne stood her ground. She smiled slowly at it. When the serpent was ten feet away from her, Roxanne lifted her Peacemaker and she fired a single bullet into the Zolom's skull. Its form ghosted away and a shower of gil rained onto the swampy ground.

She was expecting the surge of energy that accompanied gaining a level. She was not expecting the applause.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah. Munchkin. Definitely. XD. If you've never heard of the term before, its someone in an RPG-type game that manipulates the character design system so as make their avatars as strong as possible. Usually martial artists, gunslingers and combat mages are separate character classes... Roxanne, of course, is having _none_ of _that._


	5. In Which Roxanne Meets Some New Friends and Discovers that Stress is Cumulative

At the sound of hands clapping behind her, Roxanne startled, badly. She whipped around, her eyes catching upon a red-headed man dressed in a half-ruined suit of his own.

"You are a _maniac,"_ the man complimented. "And I mean that in the best way possible. Taking on a damned _Midgar Zolom_ singlehandedly? _Impressive._ "

The similarly-suited blonde woman standing next to him did not seem to agree. "Stupid," she commented, shaking her head.

Roxanne shrugged, still holding the Peacemaker in one hand. "It's only stupid if it kills me," she said. Actually, it had been pretty stupid, but, hey, no risk no reward. That was life.

"Huh," the man snapped his fingers. "I recognize you. You're Tseng's new contractor, right? The materia supplier?"

So. They were Turks. That explained... a lot. Actually, the red-headed one _did_ kind of look like Reno... The homicidal maniac that had - _would,_ actually - drop one of Midgar's goddamn _plates_ in an attempt to take out AVALANCHE and probably kill about... _What's one-seventh of Midgar's population? Has to be at least several million people - counting both the lower and upper levels..._

"That'd be me, yeah," Roxanne replied slowly. Mass homicide done on orders was still mass homicide. Her trigger finger itched.

He hadn't done it yet, but still -

It wouldn't be a good idea to shoot the bastard, she told herself. Probably. Maybe.

"Fuck me," Probably-Reno said. "Have you considered a career in the Turks?"

Roxanne wanted to burst into laughter at the suggestion. Yeah... _no. Hell_ no. Fuck, she'd rather join fucking _SOLDIER._ At least they _tried_ to do good. 

"Do you _want_ to lose our new materia supplier?" the blonde woman asked him. "Do you have any idea how difficult mastered materia are to _find?_ " She turned towards Roxanne; raising an eyebrow at the gun still clenched in one fist, trigger finger carefully resting against the side and away from temptation. "I apologize," she said. "You must be exhausted. Would you like an escort out?"

"If you're headed towards the Mythril Mines, sure," Roxanne agreed with a tight smile. She took out a miraculously unsoiled cloth and wiped the Peacemaker clean of muck. She'd keep it out, she decided. It would be good in case of monsters and... other things. "I heard something about a monster problem going on over there," Roxanne added.

"Want to get your cut before the SOLDIER boys show up and take it all?" Reno asked. "I can respect that," he nodded.

The blonde woman rolled her eyes at her companion. "I'm Cissnei and this is Reno," she said by way of introduction. 

"I'm Roxanne," Roxanne said. "I'd shake your hand, but..." She was kind of filthy at the moment.

"Understandable," Cissnei said quickly.

Roxanne could feel the Turks' gaze somewhere between her shoulder blades as she gathered up the fallen gil as best she could. When she was done the party headed for the mines, Reno and Cissnei sticking to a nearly invisible pathway that was raised a hand's breadth above the swamp's muck.

It was possible that the two had come across her by chance, Roxanne thought as she walked. But... Yeah. Probably not. So, the question was, what the hell were they after?

"Are you the one who wanted the Barrier?" Roxanne asked Reno. She made sure to curve her lips into a smile so that her voice came out cheerful and innocent.

"Barrier...?" Reno asked, almost stumbling.

"Yeah," Roxanne nodded. "Tseng put in an order for a mastered Barrier materia right before the Zolom showed up."

The two Turks exchanged a quick look.

 _Ah, fuck_. Roxanne resisted the urge to facepalm. All this, because she hadn't given Tseng her numberwhile they were on the fucking bus? _Fuck!_ He hadn't been up to anything skeevier than usual, before - if Ronan hadn't flipped out they could have still been in Midgar, sipping some good microbrews and flirting with Genesis. _Paranoia,_ Roxanne reflected. _Not always a good thing._

"Ah, no," Reno answered her question. "But if you're taking more orders, I want a Seal."

Roxanne shrugged. Seal materia were easy to level, and it wasn't like she wouldn't have the space for it. "21,000 gil," she said. She should probably be asking more, since it was fucking _Reno,_ but -

Reno winced at the price. "You drive a hard bargain, girlie," he said.

"21,000 - take it or leave it," Roxanne said with a cold smile. "Fair market price."

"Fine..." the Turk groaned. "You got yourself a deal."

"Was there anything you wanted...?" Roxanne asked Cissnei, quite a bit more politely.

The Turk shrugged. "I'll let you know," she promised.

Roxanne nodded. That sounded good to her. She dug into one of her coat pockets with her left hand, pulled out a hyper, and downed it. Tranquilizers might have been good for minimizing damage, but the way they fucked with your head was not fun.

The three of them were attacked twice more by random monsters on the way to the mines. Thankfully none of them were Zoloms. A _Beta_ attack would probably be a one or two-hit kill on one of them, but with Roxanne's MP so low... She wanted to be able to cast a couple of _Cures,_ at least. Just in case.

"We'll walk you in," Cissnei offered when they arrived. "ShinRa owns the mine, so long as you're here with our permission they won't protest."

"Not that they _would,_ considering their workforce is getting eatin' alive and all," Reno commented. "But sense and management don't usually go together."

Roxanne snorted in amusement at that. _I guess you would fucking know, Turk._ ShinRa's upper management was filled with stupid, stupid people, after all. And shit traveled south.

Thankfully, the mine's management was not as moronic as Reno had feared. The miners took one look at the three, one look back into the mine, and immediately cleared out. The two Turks poked around the mine's main office while Roxanne rested quietly on a cot, meditating and recovering her MP.

The Turks were grim-faced when she finally got up.

"Our apologies for leaving," Cissnei said. "But I'm afraid that duty calls."

"What she said," Reno added, pointing a thumb at his coworker. "Later."

With the Turks gone; Roxanne was free to wander around the abandoned mine by herself, which was the way she preferred it. She was able to learn _Flamethrower_ from one of the local monsters, find (and _Steal_ ) a nice selection of items and retrieve the Long Range materia, which she immediately equipped.

The next time Roxanne stumbled across a monster, she hesitated beyond the range of its attacks and carefully aimed a punch at it, drawing upon the Long Range. It flew backwards at the force of the strike, shrieking in surprise. Roxanne grinned. She was going to have _fun_ with that one.

It was the work of a few hours to clear the mine of monsters. With the help of her new materia, it even felt a bit like _cheating._ _So much easier than when I first got here,_ Roxanne thought, looking around. She would make one more sweep around, let the miners know that it was safe to come back in, and then take the natural caves to where they exited on the other side of the mountains.

Roxanne had just turned a corner when she was stopped by a wall of muscle. She rocked backwards onto her heels, nearly falling over, and gazed up, up, up into the eyes of a startled-looking grey-skinned man. "Um," she said. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Ahahaha!" the man laughed. "It is no bother to Gilgamesh! But are you alright, tiny little lady?"

Roxanne stared at him for a moment. "I'm just fine, thank you," she said weakly.

"So what has brought you here to this cavern that was not so long ago filled with monsters?" Gilgamesh wished to know. "Are you perhaps a hero on a daring quest to save the world, seeking out evermore powerful foes in an attempt to gain mastery over your body and your magic?"

"..." Roxanne swallowed. _Oh, crap,_ she thought. It was _that_ Gilgamesh. Final Fantasy's dimension-hopping recurring character. He wasn't even supposed to _be_ in Final Fantasy VII, though!

"Sort of," Roxanne admitted, finally. "I'm on a quest to rescue the hero - who will save the world - from vile torture at the hands of evildoers..."

"Aha!" Gilgamesh proclaimed. "A most noble quest indeed! I, Gilgamesh, shall help you on your journey!"

Roxanne subtly edged backwards. Gilgamesh was probably stronger than both Angeal _and_ Genesis. Even Sephiroth might have a difficult time fighting him -

He had a sword. She had a gun. In the real world it would have been a no brainer. But... this was a video game universe. It followed goddamn _trope_ logic. She had no delusions regarding her odds of winning -

_(-it had been a long time since Roxanne's fencing days but she still knew the basic movements, block/deflect/evade/parry/lunge-)_

"How so?" Roxanne finally croaked.

Gilgamesh stared at her for a long moment, his eyes eerily piercing. "When the student is ready, the master shall appear!" he boomed. "First, we shall spar!"

Roxanne reached into her coat, pulled out one of her new ethers, and downed it. She would need the damn thing, she could already tell. She then cast _Sense,_ just to figure out how much she was screwed. _Level 44, HP 6,000._ _Fuck,_ Roxanne thought to herself, as her litany of fencing techniques desperately dredged themselves out of the backwaters of her memories.

Then... _Wait..._ Level _44?_

"Are you ready?!!"

Roxanne nodded woodenly. She had one chance to win.

The giant leaped forward, enormous blade at the ready - !

Roxanne reached into her Enemy Skill and cast _L4 Suicide._ Gilgamesh let out a shout of surprise as he shrunk to the height of her waist, and through her _Sense_ Roxanne could almost envision a timer with a skull and crossbones ticking away over his head. She leapt over her opponent's now thigh-high attack and pulled out her gun.

The battle was a contest of speed and agility as Gilgamesh deflected Roxanne's bullets and kicks, and Roxanne dodged around his sword slashes and thrusts. Both of them used their terrain to its fullest, using the cavern walls to flip and twist themselves out of the way of the others' blows.

Even miniature-sized, Gilgamesh was still inhumanly strong, as Roxanne discovered when she attempted to beat parry one of his sword blows with her mythril-plated gauntlet and was knocked back twenty feet. Roxanne gasped, cast /Cure2/ on herself, and threw herself back into the fray.

 _I can't keep this up,_ Roxanne thought desperately as she blocked another sword attack. Her forearms were going numb.

The next time Gilgamesh struck, Roxanne grasped her opponent's right hand in her left, dragging it downwards and setting him up for a throw. Instinctively, her leg lifted up in preparation for a kick -

 _Oh, shit_ \- Roxanne realized, the moment her foot left the ground -

Gilgamesh _smiled_ and _twisted,_ and with Roxanne's stance broken, the monster-hunter went flying into the cave wall with a loud _CRACK!!!_

Out of MP, out of ethers, and with what felt like a broken rib _(- or ribs, possibly from the way her side screamed -)_ Roxanne slowly hauled herself to her feet.

She stood with shaking limbs and watched as her opponent's sword deflected her latest round of bullets. In five more seconds, the timer would run out and _Death Sentence_ would bring Gilgamesh down. She only had to last until then. _You can do this,_ she encouraged herself, fighting to breathe, _you can do this._

Gilgamesh took one step closer, then another, and then frowned. He reached into one of his own pockets, withdrew a bottle, and drank it down. The timer over his head disappeared. And his height tripled.

Roxanne sagged against the wall in despair. There had been only one second left! Without the _Death Sentence_ in place, there was no way she could win now -

Gilgamesh rushed forward and Roxanne closed her eyes. _What a stupid way to die..._

The next thing she knew, Roxanne was swept up and off her feet, enormous arms bundled around in the biggest and tightest bear hug of her entire life. Her ribs were screaming in almost blinding agony as her eyes shot open to witness Gilgamesh bawling great tears of joy.

"What a skilled and worthy student I have found!" he sobbed. "So inventive! So determined! We will make a warrior out of you, yet!"

Roxanne had enough time to think - _holy crap, I'm still alive_ \- before the lack of oxygen, combined with the thrashing she had just received, caused her to black out.

When Roxanne awoke on the now familiar cot in the Mythril Mine's office, Gilgamesh was nowhere in sight. She took one deep breath and then another and rolled to her feet, testing her muscles. _Breathing's good, no pain from ribs, no pain in muscles_ -

Gilgamesh had healed her before leaving, then. _Good._ It was the least he could have done, especially since he had just _attacked her out of nowhere_ and then given her a bear-hug after _breaking her goddamn ribs._

If it wasn't for the note on the table, and the intriguing-looking torso armor laid out next to it, Roxanne would have almost thought the entire experience to be a particularly bizarre hallucination. Before investigating the armor, Roxanne picked up the note and scanned over it.

 _'Student,_  
  
_As a token of my esteem I, Gilgamesh, have left you the first piece of_  
_what is now known as the "Genji Equipment." When next we meet I will_  
_challenge you and, if you can once again defeat me in combat, you may_  
_earn the right to another of the set. Farewell, and good luck!_  
  
_Gilgamesh'_

Roxanne closed her eyes and sighed. _Oh my fucking god._ At least she knew now that he wouldn't kill her. Well. Hopefully. At least, not after she had "won."

Gilgamesh had been very generous in deeming their little "spar" her victory. She had been completely outclassed her in every way, and she knew it. She might have lasted a little bit longer without her little FUBAR-ed attempt at a throw, but that wouldn't have made any difference. Not with the way Gilgamesh was able to shrug off _L4 Suicide,_ like it was a handicap he had willingly took on just to make the fight "fair" -

 _Still alive,_ Roxanne reminded herself. _And the Genji Armor is a fine-looking piece of equipment._ It was even appropriately androgynous. And if the Genji equipment Gilgamesh was offering was anything like the FFX set, then the whole headache might even end up worthwhile.

The Genji Armor was surprisingly comfortable, Roxanne discovered after she had peeled off her coat and tried it on. She felt like she could move _mountains._ _Does this thing come with a strength boost?_ she wondered.

"Yeah," Roxanne said out loud, shrugging her coat back on. "You're definitely a keeper."

If this was the _first_ piece of the set, what were the others like? And could she get Gilgamesh as a summon like in FFVIII? He would completely own everybody and everything she was likely to come across.

Actually... If he really _was_ Gilgamesh, the world-hopper who was tied to the Dimensional Rift, maybe he could even send her home. He was probably a better bet than Bugenhagen, even, possibly her best shot. Though... She... didn't quite know how to feel about that.

Roxanne had grown to actually like living in that strange new world. Gaia was much more interesting than the world that she had come from, after all. And... it wasn't exactly like she had left a lot behind.

Now that she had _literally_ stumbled across a way to return, she was no longer sure she even wanted to go back. It was a disquieting sensation.

The miners were overjoyed at the news that Roxanne had taken care of their monster infestation, some of them even making a few sarcastic about the value of SOLDIER in the process. Their coworkers, remembering how Roxanne had been accompanied by a pair of Turks, were quick to shut them up before too much smack was said. Disappointingly.

For a job well-done, the mine's foreman rewarded Roxanne with a mega-elixir, which she gracefully accepted and carefully tucked away. In battle MP was practically everything, as the monster-hunter had already discovered.

It was nightfall by the time Roxanne emerged on the other side of the mountains. The sky was clear and the stars were fully visible, almost unbelievably bright in the absence of competing lights. Roxanne stopped and stared at them for a while before bunking down in a tent right outside of the cave entrance.

The next morning, after checking the World Map, Roxanne headed straight for Fort Condor. It took her several days and a number of annoying monster encounters to reach the damned place.

The fort itself looked like a natural rock formation - a giant boulder that had once rolled down from the mountains during a terrible flood, maybe - but had been heavily modified by some sort of machinery. The rock's sheer walls rose some twenty or thirty feet high, not scalable by ordinary means.

The landscape around the fort was a blasted and burned wasteland. Flecks of metal and shattered trees littered the landscape. There were no bodies. (When humans died, died did they leave bodies? Or did they disappear into mist in the same way that monsters did? Roxanne didn't know. She had always been afraid to ask.)

 _(There was no_ meat _in Gaia, after all...)_

"Hello?" Roxanne called out hesitantly when she arrived at the Fort's entrance. In-game someone would drop a rope ladder or something to let visitors in... But with the recent battle, perhaps they were being cautious. In that case, Roxanne would like to avoid getting shot.

No, really, she would like to avoid getting shot. She had avoided it so far, and would like to continue doing so for as long as possible. It seemed like a good life goal.

"Is anyone there?" Roxanne tried again. If not, then she would just have to go. There were materia there that she really wanted to get, but she couldn't really say that she _needed_ them or anything. They would just make her life immeasurably easier in the long run...

A head popped down out of the upper tunnel, taking a quick look around before disappearing. A rope ladder was unrolled until it reached the ground. Roxanne walked towards it and looked up, but was unable to see anything.

 _Way to be intimidating,_ she huffed to herself. Then again, that was probably the point. And so, bemused and a touch worried, Roxanne climbed upwards.

A lone guard sat on a nearby stool, eying her charred and muddy clothing as she emerged from the tunnel. Roxanne returned his gaze, raising one eyebrow, but he remained silent.

Roxanne got to her feet, dusted herself off, and wandered down the hallway in search of the materia shop.

Buying the Manipulate and All she was looking for drained her savings dry, but Roxanne told herself that it would be well worth it in the long run. A mastered All sold for over a million gil, after all, and would be the absolute fastest way of becoming absolutely stinking rich.

The Manipulate materia was popped into one of the unlinked slots of Roxanne's armlets - they were really more like armored bangles at this point, actually - and she decided to link the All to the Poison she had bought in Kalm.

The materia dealer gazed at her setup with interest. "Most folk can't deal with more than two or three materia at a time," he commented idly, gesturing at her arms. "The most I've ever seen equipped at one time before was eight."

Roxanne frowned at him in bemusement. "Really?" she asked finally. That hadn't seemed to be the case in the game... But then again, in-game and Actual Gaia phenomenon didn't always match up.

"Causes too much mental strain," the materia dealer said. "People can't deal with it and pass out."

"Huh." Roxanne reached out to her materia, connecting to them all in turn. She didn't feel strained in the least. And she had more than eight of the things. "Do they get a warning, first?"

"Usually," the man said. "You're not feeling any distress?"

"No," Roxanne shook her head. "If anything, I feel better than usual."

The man shrugged. "Haven't hit your limit yet, I guess," he concluded, but his eyes were... wary.

"Hmm," Roxanne answered. She tilted her head, looking at him curiously. "We'll see, I suppose," she said, finally, after a minute had passed.

 _Okaaaay..._ Roxanne thought to herself as she nodded to the man and turned to leave.

"You might want to keep that to yourself," he spoke again just as Roxanne's heel cleared the door. "Just some friendly advice."

Roxanne waved a hand at him over her shoulder in acknowledgment. Her footsteps echoed on the hard stone floors as she returned to the tunnel that was the fort's only entrance and exit. The guard watched her leave just as wordlessly as he had watched her arrive.

 _That was... odd,_ she thought to herself as she climbed down the ladder. Maybe it was because of the Turks? Or... There was just so much that she didn't know.

The Turks had been monitoring her, likely since before she had met Tseng on the bus to Midgar. They had been able to find her in the swamplands, even, which implied that they had kept on monitoring her even after meeting Tseng. _( - Her cell pho - PHS, maybe? - )_ There was a good chance that knew about Ronan.

If she broke into the ShinRa mansion to rescue Vincent, they would probably know exactly who she was. But... Vincent had been a Turk himself. One of them. So... Maybe...

Roxanne shook her head viciously. Cloud was already in SOLDIER, and if he was friends with Commander Angeal's apprentice, then they probably wouldn't touch him to go after her. And it wasn't like she really knew anyone else here. There was a definite lack of suitable hostages to use against her.

But... still...

 _Fuck this line of thought,_ Roxanne grumbled to herself. _I'll make up my damn mind when I get there._ Making things up on the fly had gone pretty well for her so far, after all. Why mess with what worked?

The next day, when she neared Junon, Roxanne tracked down another Z - flying cactus-yeti. The first thing she did was hit the bastard with a _Manipulate._

It took several tries before the monster came under her control, but when it was she immediately made it cast the healing move _White Wind_ on her. Her Enemy Skill registered it immediately, and she grinned. Then, for the first time, she tried out _Beta._

A whirlwind of fire came down, blocking her view. She could feel the heat from it, but distantly, as if it would not touch her. As if it _could not_ touch her. When the whirlwind lifted, nothing of the spot where it had came down remained, beyond a handful of gil and a handy little Hi-Potion. And a large section of burned earth.

Roxanne smiled, angling her arm so as to admire her absolute favorite materia. "You are a perfect wonderful thing," she cooed to it. "And we are going to be the terror of the Western Continent." She was already looking forward to it.

When Roxanne arrived in Junon, she picked up a Revive and Reno's requested Seal before getting a ticket to Costa del Sol. This time, Roxanne made sure to equip her new materia in private. She still didn't quite know why the old guy in Fort Condor had told her to keep it a secret, but trouble was one thing she'd like to avoid for as long as possible.

When the appointed hour struck, Roxanne boarded the ship with the rest of the passengers. Thankfully, she didn't recognize any of the sailors who were wandering around. That would have been something of an awkward reunion.

Absently, Roxanne wondered if Tseng knew anything of the way she had arrived in Junon. He hadn't hinted at it at all during their meeting, but his assumption that she and Cloud were siblings... _He probably doesn't have a clue,_ she reassured himself. Or, it also occurred to her, it could have been that he had no clue at the time. After all, it would only take one good background investigation...

It was a good thing she had realized that something was majorly screwy before giving anyone her name. But... at least one sailor had to have made a proper report to some sort of authority. And even if they didn't have a picture of her, they probably had some sort of physical description.

The disappearance of an amnesiac kidnapping victim from a hospital ward occurring right around the same time as a string of thefts and the appearance of a new monster-hunter fitting the same physical description? Yeah, that one would be pretty easy to figure out. That is, if the Turks hadn't _already_ figured it out, and thought that she was some sort of escaped research subject - entirely plausible in the FFVII world - and Tseng had only put that part in about her being Cloud's sister to calm her down and - and -

Roxanne took a deep breath, pinching the corners of her eyes with her fingers. Then she slapped herself. Hard.

The other passengers stared at her in shock, most edging away from the obviously crazy person. As they were wise to do. Especially when the crazy person in question was a monster-hunter and capable of breaking them in half with her pinky.

 _Paranoia,_ Roxanne reflected. _Not always a good thing._ She pushed away from the ship's railing, heading for her cabin.

 _Some days are better than others,_ Roxanne reminded herself, smiling vaguely at the man who had cheerfully greeted her. They really were.

There had been a time in her life, when she was younger, when she was not capable of looking strangers in the eyes. When every minor social interaction had sent her into paroxysms of sheer unthinking _anxiety._ Leaving her goddamn apartment had been an experience akin to torture.

She had had to... change since then, of course. Lock it all inside. _Adapt._ The world did not accept those who did not at least pretend to conform, after all. And, for the most part, she had succeeded.

But sometimes, when life attacked and her nerves were shot, she just had no more energy left to pretend. The panic welling up inside of her wouldn't let her. And she had always preferred having her freakouts in private.

Honestly, with the way things had been going Roxanne was almost surprised that she hadn't had a panic attack before then. Though, Ronan's fit of paranoia after seeing LOVELESS had come close, now that she was thinking about it.

At the door to her room, Roxanne's PHS buzzed. She looked at the sender's ID before opening the message up. It was from Genesis.

Roxanne frowned. It had been more than a week since they had met. Most people, if they were actually interested, texted or called within the first couple of days. Two, usually, to show the right balance between "interested" and "not _too_ interested." Getting texted after so much time had passed...? It was a bit... odd.

She thought he had forgotten all about Ronan, actually. It was what they had expected.

Roxanne's finger hovered over the PHS's screen. She was in no state to be listening to anything or making important decisions. At all. 

_But, Genesis..._ a voice within her whined. She wanted to look at the message, she _needed_ to - what if it was something important, what if he -

Roxanne took another deep breath and then slowly shook her head. She put her PHS away. She'd read his text when she was feeling better. Whatever it was, it could wait

Right now, taking care of herself was more important.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, that Gilgamesh. :D In the FF series, there is only one. And he is the same one, poor dimension-hopping bastard that he is. Gilgamesh likes to take it easy on his (usually heroic) opponents, but - if he ever decided to fight seriously - he could probably take on Sephiroth himself and win.
> 
> Fun fact: Gilgamesh carried a counterfeit Buster Sword in FFXII - which implies that he's been to the FFVII-world before, even if he's never appeared in-game. I'm actually surprised I haven't come across Gilgamesh in a fanfic before... He'd be a perfect plot device for crossovers and timetravel shenanigans, and is very entertaining to boot. *shrugs*
> 
> And Roxanne's panic attack was modeled after ones that I myself have gone through. Every person is unique, though, so her experience might not match anyone else's. Don't take this as a general rule or general experience. Also, this is only the prelude to the full attack itself, which will happen in the beginning of the next chapter.


	6. In Which There Is a Lot Of Texting and Also a Fair Amount of Drama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: chapter contains inside POV of a panic attack. If you want to skip it, start reading at "Roxanne breathed in."

For the next several hours Roxanne huddled in a corner of her cabin, the bedspread wrapped tightly around her. She meditated as best she could, focusing on the here and now - the inhale and exhale of her breath, the beating of her heart, the incessant rocking of the ship.

The adrenaline surging through her veins, the cesspool of fear unraveling in her mind - those she did her best to ignore, shoving them to the side. There was only the now, the here, the _moment. (- the ache in her chest, the hot tears prickling underneath her eyelids, the careful regulation of her breathing - )_ All else was unreal, false, a fantasy dredged up by the weasels running amok in her brain.

Roxanne breathed out, carefully, silently.

She had done this before, she reminded herself. It would pass, just as it had before. She would endure. She was a warrior. She was _strong._ She _could do this._

Roxanne breathed in.

The sun was dipping beneath the horizon by the time Roxanne emerged from her cocoon. She felt shattered, shaken, wiped clean. Roxanne curled up on the bed, heaving a sigh.

When she felt like something human again, and not like a eldritch horror made out of fear, she fished for her PHS; and, not without a bit of trepidation, opened Genesis' message.

_'I apologize for taking so long to text you - work has been somewhat more demanding than I usually like it to be, and unusually thorough in its distractions. Are you still in Midgar, by any chance? The theater is showing one of Spearshake's plays, "MacLeod," I believe. Would you care to see it with me? - G'_

Roxanne smiled weakly. She would have loved to, but... _'I'd love to, but I'm afraid I'm already halfway to the Western Continent. Raincheck? - R'_ she sent.

It was almost dinnertime, but Roxanne didn't feel quite up to leaving the room just yet. It wasn't... Too many people, outside. Way too many people. She closed her eyes, leaning back against the headboard. Her PHS buzzed again.

_'Work, I presume? The Western Continent is much better in terms of monster quality than the East. You should have a great deal of fun there. And a raincheck would be perfectly acceptable. Would it be alright if I texted you from time to time? I don't wish to bother you, but it might be some time before we are in the same city again.'_

_'I hope so.'_ Roxanne typed slowly. _'I've been getting a bit bored, lately. My little bro-'_ she stopped typing, then scrapped the message. Best not to suggest that Ronan had any connection to Cloud. Especially since Cloud himself didn't know of any. Still.

_'Missions aren't only for 9-5ers, I'm afraid. I hope so - I've been getting bored lately, which is never a good thing. A bit of variety in my monsters would be welcome. Texting works just fine for me - it would be awkward trying to answer the phone in the middle of a hunt. I'm planning on returning to Midgar, but it might be a few months from now.'_ Roxanne looked over the final version of the text with a critical eye. It seemed good enough, so she hit 'send.'

She then composed a quick message to Cloud. _'How r u doing? SOLDIER living up 2 expectations?'_ The last time she had texted him had been shortly after waking up in Kalm, after all. It was past time she reached out to him.

Actually... _Fuck it,_ she thought. _'Ima crossdresser nao, thought u should know. Also, on way to West. Souvenirs?'_

Her phone buzzed immediately. _'I thought u were ded. Turks. Gddmit. SOLDIER is gr8. U r crazy person tho. Reno told me. Midgar Zoloms and stealing our missions, 2. >:('_

Another text arrived just after she had read the first. _'Crossdresser..? I thought you were a lesbian... But that's not the same thing, I guess? Srry, Nibelheim was kinda small, idrk. Nice swords and materia always appreciated. Cant use own stuff til 1st class, but good for practice.'_

Roxanne blinked as she read, raising one eyebrow. She chuckled. _'Not ded yet. Good 2 hear. Reno lies. Zolom was truth tho. Am awesome lk tht. No - not same thing. Gender dsnt equal attraction. I'm usually lady but not always??? Sometimes am dude. Like dudes and ladies same. Dnt usually like sexy stuff, but once in a blu moon sm1 will do it fer me.'_

_'Okay. Thx fer tellng me. Am behnd on these things - my frnd Zack keeps teasing me 4 it. Ddnt need 2 hear bout sexy stuff tho. Am sccrd for life, nao. U owe me many many pointy things :D'_

_'Gold-digging brat. Frnd will eat heart out ovr ur nu kewl stuff. My guy nme is Ronan, btw.'_ Roxanne sent, relieved. That had gone much better than it usually did. Confusion was one thing; hostile, belligerent confusion was something else. Most people went for the second type, unfortunately.

Roxanne sighed, checking over the rest of her texts. Genesis still hadn't replied. Which was okay, but...

She should probably tell him about the whole genderfluidity thing, too. Maybe. Later. If it ever looked like they were going past idle flirtation and into something serious.

_Genesis frickin' Rhapsodos._ She still couldn't believe it.

If there were really no other SOLDIERs who were into theater, though, then it almost made sense. Genesis was probably overjoyed just to find another fighter-type person who was into the same sorts of entertainment. It gave him a lot to talk about. That Ronan didn't report to him was probably a double bonus - there were no ethical problems in pursuing a friendship with him.

Not that ShinRa was really concerned with ethics, but still. There were some few people inside it who actually gave a damn. At this particular moment, Genesis was still one of them.

An hour later, the PHS rumbled again. Yawning, Roxanne reached over to check it. Spending so much time camping outdoors had turned her into an early bird, and she had been about to go to sleep.

_'Sme nme as Cmmdr Rhapsodos' new byfrnd?'_ Cloud had sent.

Roxanne stared at the message in confusion. _'????'_ she texted back.

_'Zack says that Angeal says that Cmmdr Rhapsodos has been sighing ovr monster-hunter nmd "Ronan" all wk. Met @ LOVELESS perfmce sm dy u wnt. Fnclub up in arms. General Sephiroth disgusted b sighing. Mde Cmmdr Rhapsodos text guy 2nite. Nao byfrnds. What did u do????'_

Roxanne gaped at the phone for a long time. _'Whoops. D: Tht frnds, not byfrnds,'_ she finally sent.

_'Dz he no tht???'_

_'Prob yes. Idk??? Were only txting 4 a bit... Said could txt more???'_

The PHS was silent for a few moments. _'Dz Reno no? Ws laughing b4. Tht ws just jerk.'_

_'Havnt tld Gen bout crssdrssng. Since tht frnds, not byfrnds. Reno noes bout that, i thnk, nt txting. Still jerk.'_

_'Fuck'_ Cloud finally sent.

_'Y'_ Roxanne agreed. She flopped backwards, flinging an arm across her face. _This fucking day, I swear,_ she thought to herself.

The PHS buzzed again. _'What r u going 2 do?'_ Cloud wanted to know.

_'Idk. Need 2 tell if Gen srs. Dnt kno how hell take it, tho.'_

_'If jerk, will help u get rvng. Zack will help 2. Hes prankmaster.'_

Roxanne choked on her own laughter. _'Thx fer offr. Dnt go gettng n2 trouble tho. Bad for career. Gen mite only lke dudes or smthng, is all I ment. Whichs ok & not dsrvng of pranking'_

_'Ur no fun :( ,'_ Cloud concluded.

_'Ur the 1 2 take the 9-5, rembr? Responsibility. Learn 2 live with it. ;p'_

_'OLD'_ Cloud texted back.

They continued on the same vein until the early hours of the morning, when Cloud's roommates threatened to throw his PHS out of the window unless he stopped texting. They were on the 15th floor of the ShinRa Building. It was by no means an idle threat. So the two sent their goodbyes, and Roxanne finally went to sleep.

The next morning, the ship arrived at Costa del Sol. Roxanne disembarked, eyeing the sparkling blue seas, smelling the wonderful salty breeze. She winced in pain the moment she walked out into the light.

Roxanne held up one hand to act as a makeshift visor, squinting against the brightness. _Yeah... no,_ she thought viciously. She was not putting up with that kind of crap. The Eastern Continent at least had some cloud cover. This was just miserable.

"Are there any nice boutiques around here, by any chance?" Roxanne asked one of the ship's workers, who looked to be getting ready to do a bit of vacationing of her own before having to return to her day job. "I'm afraid I'm not used to this much... sunshine."

The woman shrugged. "There's tons of them scattered around," she said. "They all seemed the same to me. There's a tourist center near the heart of town, by Butch's materia shop, that might be able to point you to what you're looking for. Butch is enormous perv, but he's not usually out and about at this time of day."

"Thanks!" Roxanne said. "I'll be sure to kick him in the balls if I see him."

They both laughed. Roxanne hadn't been joking.

She still wasn't... back to normal yet, she knew. Her emotions were off, running high, and her decision-making... Yeah, Roxanne was showing definite signs of impaired judgment. Or at least altered judgment. The whole thing where she texted Cloud and Genesis? Would blow up in her face, sooner or later.

But, fuck, she was alone in a strange land. She wasn't sure she could survive being friendless as well. Roxanne would just have to take the consequences as they came. If that made her selfish, then, well, so fucking be it. She'd rather be selfish than dead.

Roxanne was able to avoid Butch-the-perv, much to her delight. To the best of her knowledge his shop didn't have any new materia for sale anyway, so it was no loss to her at all. The tourist center did indeed have a nice listing of boutiques, though the real treasure was the attendant's intriguing suggestion...

Apparently Costa del Sol had a fight club.

Roxanne... was not well prepared for fighting actual human beings. She had been trained for self-defense, of course, but what she had learned pretty much amounted to "cause as much pain and suffering as possible before running the fuck away," and one attempted mugging back home didn't quite count as a real combat experience. And her experiences in this world? Tossing around thieves she was vastly stronger than, and _Gilgamesh._ For various reasons, Gilgamesh did not count. _(- he could easily have killed her, if he had wanted to -)_

Martial arts, shooting, hell even what little _fencing_ she remembered... in terms of technical ability she was mediocre at best. In terms of application... Her experience with monster hunting had paid off. You could learn a hundred little fiddly tricks and still not fight worth a damn - knowing how to _apply_ those skills effectively? _That_ was what made a decent fighter. 

But, fighting monsters and fighting humans weren't exactly the same thing. Vastly different techniques were required for one, and these techniques didn't translate so well. Her experience with self-defense had given her at least _something_ of a foundation for building up her monster-fighting abilities, but... Transitioning between the two styles had not worked out so well for her. Mixed instincts were like that.

There was a _reason_ why martial arts masters recommended becoming an adept in one style before learning another, after all. The different styles were based on completely different principles, which led to mixed and contradictory instincts... Shifting one's balance for a kick when the rest of you was aiming for a throw, for instance.

She was lucky that the only thing she had broken were a couple of ribs.

Training could overcome the whole mess - but it would have to be very specific training, with clear mental markers as to which style she was supposed to use and _when._ Which meant fighting humans. And lots of them.

Normally this wouldn't be the sort of thing Roxanne would worry about - she had her gun and her materia, if martial arts weren't enough. But with Gilgamesh... they hadn't been enough, _wouldn't_ be anywhere _near_ enough. And the odds of her being able to use _L4 Suicide_ against the bastard again were slim - that particular move only worked if her opponent's level was a multiple of 4, after all. If Roxanne's materia were her best shot at gaining a victory - which they very much _were_ \- then she needed to be able to survive Gilgamesh's attacks long enough to _actually use them._ Given his superior speed, strength and skill, that was going to be a doozy.

Roxanne sighed, adjusted her new sunglasses and western-style hat, and entered Club Duel. She didn't have the highest of hopes for the place, but it would at least grant her _some_ experience in the whole fighting people thing. Experience where she didn't have to worry about getting her sorry self killed, even. Which was worth kind of a lot, in Gaia.

The cover fee was surprisingly modest. According to _Scan-All_ the highest level individual in the club was a whopping 26, same as the Midgar Zolom, but most were somewhere around 16 or 17. _I could probably take them on now,_ she thought, looking around at the cocky young toughs who were yelling profanities at each other. _But..._ She glanced at the level 26 guy. _You, sir, might be a challenge._

It would probably be better to watch first, before challenging anyone. See what was up against, how the rules worked. But first... Roxanne headed to the bar.

"Something good," Roxanne requested, stopping herself from requesting a Belgian-style just in time. "Belgian-style" meant absolutely nothing in that world, after all.

The bartender gave her a curious onceover before pouring something from the tap and handing it to her. Roxanne sipped at it and, suppressing a wince, paid the man. Because she wasn't an asshole, she even threw in a tip. Even though his "something good" tasted like unclean ass.

_This is what I get for not asking for something by name,_ she mused to herself, wandering over to the ring. She sipped at her beer again. _Fuck, this is disgusting._

Drink in hand, Roxanne did her best to wallflower, hiding behind the other tourists until the appointed starting time. She could do the small talk thing well enough, but people in general were exhausting creatures. And these people were probably more exhausting than most.

She was at a goddamn _fight club,_ after all.

"Weeeloooome, ladies and gents, to Club Duel!" the announcer finally boomed. "Costa del Sol's premier fight club! Home to the best fighters on the Western Continent! Where the only rule is - _there are **no** rules!"_

The audience cheered.

"Our first match of the night is Shatterstorm vs. Deathscream, everybody!"

The audience cheered louder.

Roxanne raised an eyebrow as she watched the two youths tear into each other without either skill or finesse. She had been expecting at least _some_ sort of mixed martial arts use, honestly. What she was seeing... was something of a disappointment.

Still... _Wasn't going to do anything else tonight,_ Roxanne supposed, leaning against the wall. She sipped at her beer again as one of the fighters - Deathscream, maybe? - executed a combo attack against his opponent. That had almost been impressive. Almost.

Deathscream ended up winning his bout, and the next fighters were called in. They were noticeably better than the first pair. Roxanne watched with avid interest as the night continued, taking note of which approaches were most effective against which type of opponent.

It was almost closing time when Roxanne's ass-beer finally ran out. She held it up to the light, debating trying out another one and hopefully finding something better. She wasn't even certain what she _had_ gotten, to be honest.

"The drinks here are terrible," the man standing next to her said, glancing at her expression. "I'd wait to get one until I went elsewhere, to be honest."

"That obvious?" Roxanne asked, amused. She was already tipsy after one beer, she noted. _I have no alcohol tolerance at alllll..._

"I know that face," the man said. "I have made that face. And I have regretted it in the morning." The man gave Roxanne a onceover, wrinkling his nose in confusion. "Um, if you don't mind me asking-" he waved a hand at her. "What pronouns do you prefer? I mean, I've learned not to guess..."

Roxanne stared at him blankly.

He held up his hands. "I'm sorry if that wasn't what you were going for!" he exclaimed, his voice carefully light and friendly.

Roxanne squinted at him for a long moment. "I tend to switch around a bit," she said slowly. "Right now 'she' works."

"Ah," the man said. "So, single, dating anyone?"

"Dating someone," Roxanne nodded. That was quite possibly the strangest way anyone had ever tried to pick her up. She appreciated it, though. A lot. "He could kick your ass," she added with a grin, because that, at least, was true.

The man chuckled. "Well, I don't go where I'm not wanted," he said lightly. "But I've been suffering from a definite lack of good conversation, lately, and you look to be the most interesting person I've met for a while. Care to grab a few drinks? Drinks that don't taste like something out of a sewer pipe?"

Roxanne looked back at the ongoing match. Both guys were whaling on each other, happy as could be. She shrugged. There was nothing to be gained by staying there and, eh, the guy seemed alright. If not... well, super strength was one part of Gaia that she could get behind. "As long as you don't try to pay," Roxanne conceded.

The man grinned. "Excellent," he said. "I know just the place."

The two of them wandered out into the cool nighttime air. Roxanne looked up at the sky and sighed. The stars, alien as they were, were beautiful.

The man led her away from the docks, back into town. The district they stopped at was brightly lit and swimming with people. Colorfully dressed people. Necking other colorfully dressed people. Many of whom were of the same gender.

Roxanne's mouth twisted into a grin. "Are you taking me to a gay fetish bar?" she asked, watching as a man in high heels and fishnet stockings was led down the street by a woman dressed in a full leather ensemble. She had him on a very short leash. Literally. 

"That obvious?" the man asked, grinning back at her.

Roxanne laughed.

The drinks there _were_ much better she noted later on. The man - his name was _Legend,_ apparently, and what kind of horrible person would name their kid _that?_ \- had recommended something called a 'Mideel-type' ale. It was pretty damn good, she thought. Definitely an improvement.

Legend was very charming and handsome and if Roxanne hadn't been in a weird pseudo-relationship with Genesis she might have gotten a crush on him, grey-ace or not. As it was, they had a fun time discussing, of all things, monster-hunting.

The man was retired now, but had apparently been a _very_ good monster-hunter once upon a time. He was happy to share some of his favorite hunting tales with her, provided she did the same with him.

She learned what it was like to wander the deserts near Cosmo Canyon, the heat of the sun nearly boiling you alive until all you wanted was _water._ She learned what it was like to stalk the fields and forests of Wutai, of the Wutain peoples' great respect for materia, and something of what the country had been like before Shinra had declared war on them. She learned what it was like to wander the frozen fields of the Northern Continent, to fight the strongest monsters in the world.

Roxanne leaned back, halfway to drunk. "I'm - ah, - I mean - I'm a bit new at this -" she pointed to him, "so my stories aren't as impressive. Yet. Yet! Remember that!" Then she told him about how she had met Cloud, the high learning curve of her first few weeks, how easy it all had become after she had _finally_ gained her levels.

She told him about the Midgar Zolom and how strength was no substitute for strategy. How she had gotten her ass kicked by a wandering swordsman - one that was so honorable that he had decided _it was her victory_ because he had to resort to using an item in order to avoid getting knocked out. Even though she had been using items the whole time. And magic, of course. Couldn't forget about that.

How she was now determined to re-learn how to fight human opponents, because she didn't want to still be so pathetic when they met up again.

As Roxanne talked, Legend sipped at his own drink and nodded. "It sounds like you're more of a combat mage than anything else," he said when she had finished talking. "But you're right that it isn't a good idea to rely on your magic exclusively. Mixing martial arts with distance weapons in order to back up your casting was a good idea."

He chewed on his lower lip for a few seconds. "If you're serious about re-learning how to fight human opponents, I can help with that a bit. It wouldn't be proper training, mind - I've never been properly trained myself - but I've got a fair bit of experience with that."

Roxanne eyed him warily. "What 'ould I owe you fer this... tra'n'g?" she asked, tilting a bit to one side.

Legend laughed. "The pleasure of your company," he said. "Not like that!" he barked once he noticed Roxanne looking alarmed. "Goddess above, woman, what kind of pig do you think I am?"

"Meh," Roxanne answered, tilting her hand to the side. "M' not so good at the trest thing - been disappotined too m'ny tiems."

"Well, shit," Legend said. "I'm sorry." He shook his head. "And you're drunk."

Roxanne tilted her head to the side to match her hand. "Maaaybe?" she drawled. "Ets been a 'ell of a week."

Legend ended up having to partially carry her out of the bar. Roxanne apologized, repeatedly, but then got distracted by a buff guy in a corset. She stared dazedly after him.

"Hmff," she said. "Gen would look so good in a corset like that. And with fishnet stockings and heels and a collar and leash and _makeup..._ God-ess. So good."

"Nice to hear," Legend said, adjusting his grip on her. She was squirming a bit, not that she could really help it.

"Is that TMI? Sorry," Roxanne said. "But daaaamn. Would he look good. He's so pretty. N'd confident. Want t' make 'm _beg."_

Legend laughed. "You're going to be so embarrassed tomorrow, it's going to be great," he said cheerfully.

"You are a terrible human being," Roxanne informed him, enunciating each word carefully.

"I really am," he agreed.

Roxanne woke up the next morning with a terrible headache. She was alone in bed, fully clothed, and did not feel any suspicious stickiness or aches. _Fuck,_ she thought, hiding her face underneath a pillow. _That was_ stupid _of you, Roxy, going out drinking with a stranger and letting him take you home. You're lucky you didn't get fucking_ raped. _Look at your_ life. _Look at your_ choices.

_Shit._ She was stressed as all hell and back to having panic attacks and avoiding people again and she chose to go out drinking? Not a good fucking idea, lonely or not. _Goddammit._

Then she remembered what she had said about Genesis and cringed. It was true. He _would_ look damn good like that. But it wasn't exactly something she needed to shout to the heavens. They didn't even have that kind of relationship yet. Or possibly ever. They barely even knew each other!

And Roxanne still hadn't told him about the crossdressing thing, after all. Or her genderfluidity, since they weren't exactly the same thing. She really needed to. Soon. _(- of course, if that wasn't a dealbreaker, the grey-ace thing just might be -)_

Absently, Roxanne pulled out her PHS and checked it. Sure enough, there was a message from Genesis. She opened it up.

_'Spearshake's MacLeod was certainly an... interesting experience, I have to say. It seems as if nobody informed the theater staff as to the curse that was put upon the play...'_

Roxanne grinned and, for the first time noticing the glass of water sitting on the bedside table, swigged it down. Things were looking up.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fight club thing is canon, folks. :D Thank you, extended wiki. And, heh. Legend is a canon character from Before Crisis, the _Turks'_ version of Crisis Core. Which Roxanne does not, alas, know about. Unfortunately for her.
> 
> And MacLeod = Macbeth, in case you were wondering.


	7. In Which Things Get Better Before They Get Worse

Time passed, as it always did. Legend was as good as his word, putting her mixed-up martial arts against as many combat styles as he could think of and sharing stories of his past battles. Both the ones that went right and the ones that went wrong. He encouraged her to think of all the ways he could have fought _better_ and she accepted his challenge with glee.

It was _fun._ They even went out hunting around the city, and Roxanne was able to pick up _Big Guard_ from a particularly unfortunate Beachplug. _Big Guard_ was expensive as hell in terms of MP, but being able to cast _Haste, Barrier_ and _MBarrier_ on her whole party at the same time? _Nice,_ Roxanne thought.

She and Genesis continued texting each other. Their timing was awful, of course - they were both pretty busy people - but they made it work. Genesis hadn't given any signal that he actually though of her - of _Ronan_ \- in a datefriend kind of way, so Roxanne eventually figured that his friends had been teasing him and Cloud had gotten confused.

It was... understandable. From what she knew of the kid, Cloud hadn't had a lot of people in his life before SOLDIER, so... It made sense that he wouldn't always pick up on teasing and nonsense. Even if he _had_ somehow ended up becoming a fountain of gossip in regards to all things SOLDIER.

That was something that surprised her. Cloud. Being a fountain of gossip. Like the textspeak thing, he... didn't seem the type. Especially given his in-game persona. But, hell, what did she know? Game!Cloud had been kicked into the infantry after failing the SOLDIER exam, seen terrible things, done worse, then got kidnapped by the Science Department and tortured for _years._ And that was before the fuckery that happened during FFVII proper.

 _Those sorts of experiences are bound to fuck with a person,_ Roxanne mused. And they wouldn't be happening again, because she'd kill Hojo and Hollander herself before it came to that. Legend's... lessons were pretty useful in that particular vein.

Given some of the things he had said, and done, she was pretty certain that he had been an anti-ShinRa activist at one time or another. Possibly a Turk at one point of time or another, too. She had learned a _bit_ more about their operations than she thought they would be comfortable with.

Yeah, this probably didn't look good at all to the Turks, Roxanne supposed. But then again, in their eyes, she had every reason to be loyal to their company. So. Probably not the biggest of deals. Actually, thinking of the Turks reminded her of something...

Roxanne picked up her PHS and texted Tseng. _'Tell Reno his Seal is done.'_ The time spent grinding had been very good for her materia business, she thought with a grin. Nearly half her materia, the ones she had gotten from her early days in Junon and Kalm, were already mastered and the ones from Fort Condor - including the _All_ \- would follow soon enough.

Roxanne had already mailed Cloud a particularly nice sword, and, in a fit of hilarity, a newly spawned Chocobo Lure. She still hadn't had a chance to use hers yet - Chocobos and monster-hunting did not, alas, go together particularly well - but figured Cloud would get a kick out of his. _Especially if he has the same bird-voodoo thing going on for him as Game!Cloud did..._

So far she had been able to sell her mastered Sense to a particularly gullible fool for about 84k gil, and felt pretty confident about her future finances. While she wasn't quite "beachhouse" rich, she would be soon enough.

Tseng arranged to have Reno meet Roxanne in a coffee house in the nice side of town. The Turk looked almost hilariously out of place next to the brightly colored beachgoers in his untidy black suit. Roxanne smiled at him, placed the gem-sized Seal on a little plate, and raised an eyebrow.

"I believe you owe me some money," she said, flopping into the comfy chair across from him.

Reno picked up the Seal, examining it closely. It pulsed a vivid poison green for an instant, and his eyes flashed. He put the materia back down, his lips twisting into a smirk.

"Damn, you do good work," he said appreciatively. He held out his PHS, thumbing it to a particular screen, and Roxanne bumped her phone against it.

 _'Gil transfer successful!'_ The phone said. _'21,000 gil has been deposited into your account.'_

"So," Reno said, leaning back into his chair. He took a sip of his fancy espresso beverage. "Does _Genesis_ know that you've shacked up with a beach bum?"

Roxanne raised an eyebrow. "That I've been staying with a retired monster-hunter who's agreed to mentor me for a bit, so I don't suck so bad in hand-to-hand?" she clarified. "Yeah. I told him, not that that's any of your damn business. I also told him about the wandering swordsman who kicked my ass in a duel and how I'd like to not be so pathetic the next time we meet."

Reno hesitated - it was only for an instant, but Roxanne could still see his surprise. He hadn't known about Gilgamesh. That was a relief. Roxanne had halfway believed the Turks had cameras all over the wilds, the way they had snuck up on her before.

"Genesis said he knew the feeling," Roxanne grinned, though it was more a showing of teeth.

"Hmf," Reno said with a laugh. "You know, I never pictured him going for a woman - _any_ woman - but you? Are just his type." He took another sip of his drink.

Roxanne leaned back, raising an eyebrow. _Yeah... no,_ Roxanne thought. _Not playing that game._ She knew better, after all. "So," she said instead, "we done here? Or are you going to ask if I have enough fiber in my diet next?"

Reno snorted, a bit of coffee coming out of his nose. He coughed loudly, blotting his face with a paper napkin. "Rude was getting a bit impatient, so." He dropped a green materia on the table top. "He wants to know if he gets a discount. Gun wants a Heal."

"Yeah, I'll cut the price to 50k," Roxanne said, picking up the Barrier. _Strange,_ she thought. She was sure that she had seen Rude once or twice around Costa del Sol. Why wouldn't he have just handed her the Barrier himself? "And I've already got a Heal that's close to mastery. It'll be 105k, though."

Reno raised his eyebrows, whistling lowly. "That's one hell of a price tag."

Roxanne shrugged and slipped the Barrier into one of her pockets. "Market value," she said. "And is anyone in your organization interested in a mastered Steal? It's a very useful materia, especially when you're running low on potions and ethers. You can even get some good weapons and armor, sometimes. 84k, but it pays for itself."

Reno squinted at her carefully. "You are the most evil person I know." He held out his PHS again. "Here goes this year's salary."

Roxanne accepted the gil transfer and handed over the Steal. "Pleasure doing business with you," she said, hiding a grin.

The sun was bright and the air was hot as Roxanne exited the cafe. She was filthy stinking rich and about to get richer. Legend was still taking it easy on her when they sparred, but given their respective levels she hadn't expected anything else. She had already learned everything she was going to at that point in time. If Roxanne wanted to progress she needed to move on from Costa del Sol and find some tougher monsters to kill.

Later that very day, Roxanne said her goodbyes to Legend.

"Its been fun, kid," he said, shaking her hand. "Call me if you need me, will ya?"

She promised to keep in touch.

  


* * *

  
After several weeks' of walking, Roxanne arrived at the entrance to the Gold Saucer. She bought a life-time pass with a roll of her eyes and took the cable car up. The amusement park was as loud and flashy as the game suggested, Roxanne mused as she wandered around. She debated going for the hokey stage play but decided to book a room at the inn, first. Though, she had to laugh at some of the over-the-top haunted house effects.

For the next three days, Roxanne gamed her way through Wonder Square. She figured out which games gave the most GP for her buck, and how to play them to win. Sometimes this was an infuriating process, but she couldn't say that the results weren't worth it. Finally, _finally,_ when Roxanne had enough GP saved up, she was able to get the EXP Plus.

 _Fucking worth it,_ Roxanne grinned. She slid one of her coat sleeves up as unobtrusively as possible, popping her new materia into place. It would make leveling _so much easier,_ especially once it was mastered. Then Roxanne frowned, hearing a commotion behind her.

"We know you're cheating," someone said. The voice was loud, threatening.

"Oh yeah?!! Prove it, then!" a child answered.

Roxanne turned around. A kid - she couldn't be more than eight or nine - was being menaced by one of the Saucer's security guards. Roxanne brow furrowed. She didn't see anyone coming up to take responsibility for her -

"Do you know what we do to cheaters here?" the guard was saying. "We throw them into lockup, which is where you'll be going you little _brat_ \- "

Yeah - no. Roxanne was not allowing any stick-up-their-ass security guard to toss a little kid into the Gold Saucer's own personal prison, cheater at games or no.

"Is there a problem here?" Roxanne said, coming over and putting one hand on the girl's shoulder. She stared at the security guard, her mouth locked into a friendly and cheerful smile and her eyes as ruthless and cold as she knew to make them. It was an unnerving expression, according to Legend. He would know.

"Si-, _Ma'am,_ your daughter was caught hacking the machines to get more prizes," the guard said.

Roxanne raised an eyebrow. "A nine-year old child was hacking your top of the line machines?" she asked, her voice devoid of expression. "Really?"

The guard flushed. "Ma'am, she traded in 10GP and got a GIL Plus out of one."

"I don't see how _your_ programming bug is _our_ problem," Roxanne said. She was using her best I-am-an-angry-parent-who-is-trying-not-to-yell-voice, the one that retail workers everywhere knew and feared. "I am a Gold Pass member and have already spent more gil here than I really should have. I do not appreciate it when a business that I have decided to support falsely accuses my child of a crime. I _especially_ do not appreciate it when that business threatens to throw my child in jail."

The guard was now pale-faced and was beginning to shake.

"It seems that you are new here," Roxanne added, "so I am willing to let this go. If you falsely accuse anyone again, however, _I will have your job."_

The guard thoroughly apologized and then fled the scene. Roxanne watched him leave, righteous indignation written across her face.

When he was out of sight, Roxanne kneeled in front of the now wide-eyed girl. "Next time you might want to try hacking the games themselves to get more GP from them," she said quietly. "It's always less trouble to just pay for shit the normal way - people tend not to pay attention to where the money is coming from."

She was just so damned ethical now, wasn't she?

"I didn't - " the girl tried to protest.

"Sure you didn't, kid," Roxanne winked. "You just didn't hand over the GIL Plus because that guy was so _rude."_

The girl sputtered, turning a vivid red.

"Shelke!" another kid, this one looking to be about Cloud's age, ran up to the two. "Where have you been?" she demanded. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Your sister got into a bit of trouble with one of the guards," Roxanne said, standing up. Probably they were sisters, anyway. Eh, whatever. "She had a case of the sticky fingers."

"I didn't _do_ anything!" the younger girl insisted. "I just _looked_ at it, and then - !"

"Shelke!" her elder ran a hand through her long hair and adjusted her glasses. "Whatever she did, I apologize," she said awkwardly.

"She really didn't do anything," Roxanne said waving her hands. "One of the guards just decided to be a bit of a jerk."

"But, still..." the older girl shook her head. "I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her," she said awkwardly.

Roxanne shrugged. "Can't watch them all the time," she said. "You might want to cut your vacation short, though - they really _do_ throw people in prison for cheating. Can't say if they'd do that sort of thing to a kid, but the guard was threatening it."

The older girl swore softly, running one hand over her face. "Oh, no," she breathed, looking both panicked and resigned.

"Worried about what your parents will say?" Roxanne asked. "I can put in a word if you need me to - "

"We don't have parents," Shelke said, her lower lip jutting out. She handed the GIL Plus to her sister.

The older girl winced, but pocketed the materia. "You can't just _tell_ people that," she hissed.

"It's true!" Shelke hunched her shoulders, curling in on herself. "And don't pretend you're angry - _you_ were the one who wanted that stupid materia."

"I didn't want you to steal it!" the older girl scolded quietly.

"How else would we have gotten one?" Shelke wanted to know. "We spent all our gil on getting tickets here to hide from those creeps, and its not like you can play those stupid games for free-"

"Shelke!" the older sister kneeled down, covering the younger's mouth with one hand.

Roxanne stared at the two of them for a minute. _Shelke_ was a familiar name. While Roxanne had never actually played _Dirge of Cerberus,_ she had read a bit about it just to keep up with the plot. Shelke, she was pretty sure, was the name of one of the kids who had been kidnapped into Deepground, the experimental branch of SOLDIER. Hojo's personal playground. The girl had some sort of special ability - technomancy or something - that allowed her to hack into computers and the not-internet. It was why ShinRa had been interested in her in the first place. What was it called again...?

"Wait a second," Roxanne hissed to the both of them. "Are you two hiding from ShinRa?"

They both looked at her in horror, like two stunned bunnies that had suddenly spotted a hawk.

"You were using synaptic net diving before, weren't you, kid?" Roxanne stated more than asked. She pinched the corner of her eyes with one hand. "Hell," she said.

The two kids were starting to edge away - if they ran, Roxanne would probably never find them again -

"It's okay," Roxanne said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "I can help." And she could, actually - "I'm a monster-hunter, and if you two pretend to be my apprentices there's a damn good chance ShinRa will leave you alone." It wasn't... ideal, she really shouldn't be doing this, it would be inconvenient as all hell, but she sure as hell couldn't just leave them to _Deepground!_ It made what Cloud went through _(-would go through, maybe, if Roxanne failed-)_ look like child's play!

Instead of looking like stunned bunnies, the girls now looked as if they thought Roxanne was crazy.

"They prefer it if you come into the fold willingly," Roxanne explained slowly, hoping they wouldn't run off. "I've trained up kids who were interested in joining SOLDIER before. If they think that's what's going on..."

"We don't want to join SOLDIER," the elder girl said stiffly, her arms wrapped around her younger sibling.

"They don't have to know that," Roxanne replied. "You don't have to decide right away," she added, seeing the indecision written across their faces. "I'll be here for a couple more days at least. Let me give you my PHS number, though - when you make up your minds, _call me._ Even if the answer is no. Otherwise I'm going to think you got into trouble again."

That, at least, they were willing to agree to. Though the way they fled right after didn't exactly raise her hopes of them accepting.

Roxanne wandered aimlessly through the Gold Saucer before taking a seat on the head of a chubby mog statue. She drew a deep breath and sighed, rubbing at the corners of her eyes. _The vacation was nice while it lasted._

"Not a hero," she reminded herself. But -

There were things that she could do, that she was capable of doing. Ripples, mainly, in the scheme of things. But if the beating of a butterfly's wings could cause a hurricane -

It wasn't like anything that had happened in the game actually _had_ to happen, after all. If Cloud could get into SOLDIER on his first try, after all, then why _couldn't_ Shelke and Shalua avoid Deepground and why couldn't Genesis avoid his moral event horizon?

Roxanne wasn't a hero, and she didn't want to be. Heroes were generally a bad idea in her opinion. But, there were things that she _could_ do. And that likely wouldn't put her out _too_ much in the process. It was why she got into her particular branch of social science in the first place. Helping the kids... might backfire. Or it might go incredibly well. There were... possibilities there, she had to admit. Mutually beneficial-type possibilities.

As for Genesis... Her father had once told her that she could never save anyone from their own demons - and that she could never rely on anyone else to save her from hers, either. It was everyone's responsibility to save their own damn selves. It had been both the best and worst advice she had ever gotten.

She tried to keep it in mind.

  


* * *

  
The next morning, Roxanne entered into the Battle Square gauntlet. She had buffed herself with everything she had, stocked her items with care, and made sure her new guns were easily accessible. She was going to get her ass kicked. It was going to be great.

Except...

Roxanne frowned as her foot smashed into the second Kalm Fang. Its shape wavered, digital particles pixeling off into the air.

It was still too... easy.

She ducked under the Devil Ride's chain whip. The holograph revved its bike up to the point where fire erupted from the exhaust, and it zoomed towards her. Roxanne grabbed the chain and sidestepped the bike, waiting until the Devil Ride had gained some distance before yanking on the chain with all her might. Bike and rider separated in a burst of pixels.

Her items had been sealed off and so had her materia. The handicap meter had tried to give her _Mini,_ and _Toad,_ but had been frustrated by her _Resist._ Her HP had been cut in half. But.

Roxanne lifted the barrel of her trusty Peacemaker, emptying five rounds into the last Kalm Fang. It whined, shimmering, and disappeared.

"Still too easy," Roxanne sighed. She cracked her shoulders. A sign appeared in the air above her head.

**6th Round**

Below the sign the little wheel of disability began to spin and spin.

HP RESTORED

The cuts, burns and bruises that Roxanne had accumulated disappeared in a burst of light. She was fully healed.

 _Convincing,_ Roxanne thought, cracking her fingers. _It's hard to believe all this is happening inside a souped-up VR machine._ Though, she didn't know how else something like the Battle Square would realistically be able to run. _I always wondered how Dio was able to get all those damn monsters._

Her next group of opponents appeared in a flash of light. One Stilva, one Cuahl, two Headbombers, two Gremlins, two Wind Wings, one Sculpture and one Ironite.

She attacked.

Roxanne made it through all eight rounds without difficulty. The VR pod opened, and the attendant helped her up.

"It looks like you've earned... 16,000 battle points! Wow!" the attendant said. "Congratulations!"

Roxanne grasped the attendant's arm and asked seriously, "is there a higher difficultly level?"

As it turned out, there was.

And it was _great._

This time around Roxanne had to bail before the beginning of the 7th battle. The next time after that she was hit with the worst handicaps possible and had to bail after the third. Then the fifth. Then the eighth. She overestimated herself once and was "killed" during the seventh round. The next time she was able to win them all. It still wasn't enough, so she played again. And again.

Finally, once Roxanne could no longer pay the 10 GP it took to play, she stumbled out of the VR pod with a dazed smile and went to redeem her prizes. _Speed Plus_ and _Pre-Emptive,_ she thought, pocketing the two. _Nice._ She had some leftover battle points, so she picked out the Championship Belt and strapped it on. She wouldn't be able to get W-Summon until she managed to get to the fighting simulator's highest difficulty level, which would take a bit of time and leveling on her part.

Though, while W-Summon was pretty nice, Final Attack was the real prize of the Gold Saucer. Unfortunately, it was also part of Dio's private collection. In-game it had been offered as a prize for winning one of his special battles after getting W-Summon, the Ultima Weapon and Cloud's limit break Omnislash... But... in Actual Gaia, there were no limit breaks, as far as she knew. The Ultima Weapon hopefully wouldn't be woken up until _long_ after Roxanne left. And she didn't even know Dio.

It was too bad, Roxanne thought. Final Attack would have been a very, very useful materia to have. Especially when paired with a fully mastered Revive. Or, preferably, a Phoenix. Anything that actually managed to kill her would do well with being firebombed before her glorious return from the dead, in her opinion. Still, there was nothing for it.

Roxanne sighed. There was a familiar twinge of discomfort running through her body, her meatsuit no longer fitting quite right. _It has been a while, after all,_ Roxanne mused idly. She picked at the fabric of her gloves.

The Genji armor and loose traveling pants were the kind of clothing that could go either way. Same for the black leather hat she was currently sporting. The combat boots and overcoat were traditionally masculine, though. As were the mirrored sunglasses and the belt. Possibly the gauntlets, too, now that she thought about it. Her figure was pretty well disguised in that get-up - but...

Roxanne headed off in search of a unisex restroom. Once she had entered she locked the door and began to strip. Roxanne dug in her coat for the harness and underwear she had gotten in Wall Market.

Ronan was the one who wandered out of that restroom, not that any casual onlooker could tell much of a difference between the two. He decided to head for the Trophy Room.

Ronan idly investigated some of the displays. It seemed as if Dio had been an adventurer of sorts before turning to a life of entertainment. There were more far more items displayed in the actual trophy cases than in the game. Many of them looked to be museum-quality pieces, likely raided from some long-abandoned site.

 _This would be so, so very illegal back home,_ Ronan thought, pausing at a gem-studded golden spear. Of course, aside from Wutai the civil governments in Gaia were so weak as to be nonexistent. Maybe there were actual cultural heritage laws, and they just weren't enforced?

 _Or,_ Ronan, mused, _it could be that Dio's little collection is the closest thing the Western Continent has to an actual museum._ He supposed that sharing with the public counted for something, at least. Even if the entrance fee was very, very stiff.

It was interesting. There were little placards in front of each display that talked about the various pieces, a little of their history, and where they were found. There were a ton of things about Gaia that Ronan had absolutely no idea about. If he ended up staying for a while, it would probably be a good idea to educate himself. _Maybe find myself a key informant or two, crazy box-guy didn't really count -_

Ronan wandered idly from display to display. He had promised the kids that he'd be sticking around the Gold Saucer for at least a couple of days, after all, and this was a good a way to pass the time as any.

He paused at the Keystone.

 _So this is the beginning of the end,_ Ronan thought, staring at it. It seemed like such a little thing. It was hard to believe that it unlocked the door to the most destructive materia of them all. He had a vague urge to take it and smash it - make sure that no one else could ever enter the Temple of the Ancients and unleash _Meteor..._

It was useless, of course, Ronan knew. A determined team of archaeologists would have little difficulty breaking right on in. The Keystone was more of a symbol than anything else.

A symbol that he still wanted to smash. Of course, if he could get enough high explosives and a couple of people who knew how to handle them -

"So, how are you enjoying my Gold Saucer?" somebody asked from _right behind him._

Ronan jumped about a foot in the air, letting out a squeak of surprise. _Goddamn!!!_ He whirled around to get a look at the guy who had snuck up on him.

A manscaped body-builder, dressed only in tiny little golden shorts, was staring at him in amusement. The bodybuilder glistened with the shine of the freshly oiled. He vaguely reminded Ronan of Major Armstrong from _Fullmetal Alchemist._ Only, brunet.

Then... _"My Gold Saucer?"_ This was Dio?

"Quite well," Ronan answered, blinking slowly. Dio had not been on his agenda for the day. Or any days, really. "Battle Square in particular."

Probably-Dio nodded sagely. "You have the look of a fighter about you," he said.

"I'm a professional monster-hunter," Ronan shrugged. It was actually _true_ now. "It was... nice, fighting tough opponents when I didn't have to worry about getting killed."

Probably-Dio beamed. "That is exactly why I made it!" he said. "After I retired from adventuring, I began missing the excitement of fighting monsters. But, I had responsibilities here, and I couldn't just wander off and maybe die in the process. So! I invested in a new technology. Virtual reality! And it paid off. The VR pods you see today are the result."

Ronan smiled back. "I... outgrew the Eastern Continent, so I appreciated the different difficulty levels."

"Yes, yes," Dio nodded. "I have been considering adding a fourth one for some while. Something... beyond 'expert.' But I do not know if the world is ready, yet."

"Hmm." Ronan tilted his head to the side. "I'm... not quite at that level myself, yet, but I know a few people I think would be interested."

Cloud and Zack would probably have a blast with Battle Square, and it wasn't like they wouldn't make it to the fourth level eventually. Of course, SOLDIER had its own VR _room,_ but that one was likely to kill you if you weren't careful. And it came with creepy ShinRa scientists, not awesome prizes. With her Gold Pass, Roxanne could bring as many guests in as she liked... It might be a fun vacation, if they could pull it off.

Legend would also probably appreciate something like Battle Square, come to think of it. Possibly Genesis and his friends as well... Though, Ronan had a hard time imagining Sephiroth trying to deal with the Gold Saucer's crowds.

The fangirls alone would probably kill the poor bastard.

Dio favored Ronan with a long look. "I think you may surprise yourself," he said finally. "The fourth level would not have the same handicapping system as the others..."

Ronan nodded slowly. "I can't promise anything," he offered, "but I'd be more than happy to give it a try."

  


* * *

  
Later that day, when Ronan exited the VR pod, it was to a still and empty room. There were no signs of anyone else. Abandoned belongings littered the floor. It was completely silent.

It was - it reminded him of -

Ronan drew his gun and then crawled until he reached the edge of the room. He hugged the wall as he walked towards the door. Then he chain-casted _Regen, Resist and Big Guard_ on himself, just in case.

No people where people should be was never a good thing to see, after all.

The next room looked to be empty of people as Battle Square had been. As was the next, and the next.

Ronan was investigating the concession area when he felt a sharp tug on his pant leg. A pair of teenagers were huddled under a fallen table. _'Get down!'_ they gestured.

Ronan dropped to his knees, making sure that he would not be visible from any of the room's entrances. "What happened?" he mouthed, his voice barely audible.

The teens shook their heads. "These - these freaks in armor - just showed up and started killing people," the girl whispered. "They didn't ask for money or nothing, just - killed!"

The boy flinched at the reminder.

Ronan nodded. "How many? What did they look like? What weapons?"

"There were three of them," the girl replied. "They were wearing masks - hooded cloaks, they were carrying... I don't know, I don't -" she shook her head in frustration.

"One of 'em had a sword," the boy murmured.

"Any materia?"

The boy shrugged.

"Do you know where Battle Square is?" Ronan asked.

Both of them nodded.

"The VR pods there are good cover," he said. "I was in one, and I didn't even notice them coming in. You should be safe there."

The teens nodded again, hesitantly.

Ronan stuck his head over the edge of the table, making sure the coast was clear. "Come on!" he hissed to the two, gesturing for them to take the spot next to the wall. He took up a guard position that Legend had demonstrated to him, and escorted the teens to safety.

He strapped the boy into one of the VR pods first, but when he went to repeat the process for the girl she stopped him.

"Here," the girl said, shoving a wad of crumpled up paper at his chest. "I don't know what the hell this is, but it belongs to you. Read it."

Ronan accepted the paper gingerly before shutting her in. He stared at the crinkled mass in confusion before carefully unfolding it. He blinked once. Then twice.

It appeared to be some sort of fighting diagram, showing off some kind of complicated magic/sword/gun/martial arts combination move. It made no sense to Ronan, so he folded it back up with considerably more care than the previous owner and stuck it into one of his coat pockets. He'd figure it out later.

Then Ronan renewed his buffs and went back to look for more survivors. Halfway to Wonder Square, however, he heard something. A loud something.

He followed the sound of battle to the outside. Dio was fighting against what looked to be at least five masked figures. They had no cloaks, but rather some sort of body armor - panels of it glowed blue or green -

 _Oh, shit,_ Ronan thought, freezing where he stood. Cautiously, he cast _Scan-All._

It was bad. Dio was a higher level than they were, but he was badly outnumbered. And was losing HP fast.

Ronan swallowed. Hard. Then cast _White Wind, Regen,_ and _Big Guard._ When the Deepground SOLDIERs snapped around to look at him, he threw back a couple of ethers. He was going to need them.

Dio startled when the healing magic and buffs hit him, but then laughed and renewed his attack.

Bullets began flying towards Ronan, only to be deflected by _Big Guard._ Ronan hit the floor, doing his best to hide behind the upturned furniture. His gun was gripped tightly in his hand, and his instincts were screaming at him to run.

Instead, he swallowed. Aimed. And opened fire.

Every time Dio stepped back, Ronan would hit the Deepground troops with _Beta_ or _Aqualung._ Every time Dio's health dropped below a certain point, Ronan would cast _White Wind_ to restore it. Every time he wasn't casting, he was shooting.

Several times, the Deepground troops tried to break away from Dio and take down Ronan, but each time the adventurer corralled them back. Finally, one of them collapsed, and then another. Their bodies broke apart into twinkly fairy lights that slowly faded from view.

Roxanne's question had been answered. Humans _did_ dissolve in much the same way that monsters did. Ronan gagged. _That explains the lack of bodies._

With two of their opponents felled, it was easy for Dio to pick apart the rest.

Ronan was shaking by the time it was done. He had never seen anyone seriously injured before, let alone _killed_ \- even if it was in self defense, it was still... He gagged again.

Dio surveyed the scene grimly before striding over to Ronan and offering him a hand up. Ronan took it and was hauled to his feet.

"There may be more of them," Dio said quietly. "I am sorry to ask this of you, but without equipment I am at a disadvantage. Are you willing to accompany me to my Trophy Room?"

Ronan had turned an almost vivid shade of green and was still wracked by tremors. He swallowed with difficulty. Then he nodded.

  



	8. In Which Our Situation Begins to Heat Up

They made it to the Trophy Room without difficulty. Dio put his fist through one of the cases and hurriedly began strapping armor onto himself. Several materia were carefully selected and then equipped, and Dio grabbed the large golden spear that Ronan had been admiring less than an hour before.

"It's you!" a young voice exclaimed. A shock of red hair barreled across the room, latching onto Ronan's leg.

"Kid?!" Ronan started. It was Shelke, and Shalua wasn't far behind.

"They came out of nowhere!" the older girl said, horrified.

"Oh, crap," Ronan said, putting two and two together. "Oh, _crap_ ," he repeated for good measure. _So. So that's why Deepground decided to suddenly invade the goddamn Gold Saucer. Motherfuckinghellshitnuggets -_

"Guard these children," Dio instructed, adjusting one of his bracers, "and I shall deal with the intruders."

Ronan stiffened and made to nod in agreement when he noticed a shadow fall across the entrance to the Trophy Room. A figure stood in the doorway. It was masked and cloaked, and in its hand it carried a _gunblade._

The _Scan_ was pretty much automatic by now. _Ah, fuck_ , Ronan thought.

Dio was halfway across the room by the time Ronan was able to call out -

"Wait! He's level 50!" There was no way they could win. _No fucking goddamned way_ -

In defiance of all common sense, Dio merely nodded his head and lifted up one of his bracers. A materia glowed a bright green, and -

The cloaked figure wavered, _twisted._ A column of light shot into the air, and it was _gone._

Ronan gaped.

"Always carry an Exit, young monster-hunter," Dio advised. "You never know when you might need one."

That had been a _Restrictor_ , a member of Lost Force, one of the four most powerful members of Deepground, level _goddamned 50_ , and Dio had just...

Ronan sat down heavily. "Holy crap," he finally managed to choke out between giggles. "I definitely want one of those."

Dio let out a deep belly laugh in response.  
  


* * *

  
It turned out that the Restrictor had been the last of the invaders. All told, somewhere along the lines of fifty people were unaccounted for, most likely dead. Security had done an excellent job corralling the rest into safe rooms scattered throughout the Gold Saucer, so casualties were not as high as they could have been. They would have to look at the security footage to get an exact count.

Most of the survivors were angry, but not at Dio or the Gold Saucer staff. No, as the intruders were _obviously_ a para-military group, the survivors immediately assumed that they were anti-ShinRa activists. So they blamed SOLDIER and the Turks for failing to stop them in time.

It was... ironically appropriate, Ronan thought. In that it was, actually, entirely ShinRa's fault.

_Fucking Deepground._

After the panic had died down and the news crews had come and gone, Ronan wandered back to the hotel. The kids tagged with him, almost hiding behind his back.

He used his keycard to unlock his door and ushered them into his room. Shalua and Shelke stood huddled together in the exact center of the rug, staring miserably at him.

Ronan stared back. If it had been Cloud that this had happened to, he would have known what to do. It would have involved terrible jokes, underage drinking and hilariously bad cinema.

"I can order room service...?" Ronan offered finally.

"We accept your offer," Shalua said, the words snapping out. Beside her, Shelke gave a fierce nod.

Ronan blinked. _Good_ , he thought in relief. He would have let them go off on their own, if they had wanted to, but this was a much better option. It was far more likely to end well. But - "Do you like Wutaiian, by any chance? I've been meaning to give it a try."

"No, that's not what I -" Shalua exclaimed, her hands coming up over her face. "I mean, yes, I do like Wutaiian, but, but what I meant was - "

"You've decided to take up the glamorous life of monster-hunting," Ronan replied with a serious nod. "The Wutaiian is more of a side-benefit. My apprentices need the best nutrition, after all, so they grow up big and strong."

Shalua was too polite to glower when she realized she was being messed with, but what she lacked in rage she more than made up for in looking like she had chewed on a lemon.

Shelke just squinted at him. "You're weird," she stated.

"Yep," Ronan agreed. "It keeps life interesting." He found the menu for room service inside one of the bedstand's drawers. "So what on here is good?" he asked, flipping to the Wutaiian section and showing it to them.

"The dumplings are pretty good," Shelke said. "Make sure you get spring rolls."

"Will do," Ronan said. "What about this?" he pointed to a spot on the menu.

"Only if you like pickled beets," Shelke said, making a face.

Ronan made a face back. "Yeah, no. This?"

"Ick."

Shalua frowned at them, finally leaning forward to examine the menu. "You don't like anything," she complained. "That's actually good."

"It's gross!"

"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is!"

Ronan just grinned.  
  


* * *

  
In the end, they ordered three containers of Wutaiian, half a gallon of Neapolitan ice cream and a pie from room service. It was horribly over-priced, but hell, Ronan wasn't exactly hurting for money any more. The girls were moved into the attached suite, and security promised to keep a close eye on them.

Sometime after midnight, Ronan received a text message.

 _'Saw u on the news'_ Cloud had sent. _'"Heroic civilian saves children from terrorists at Gold Saucer!" What happened?!!'_

 _'Weird ppl in glowy suits shot up the Gold Saucer,'_ Ronan typed, slowly. _'Helped owner beat them. Saved sum kids in process. Have 2 apprentices nao. U are being replaced ;p'_

_'U r still crazy person. -_-;;; Srsly tho, u ok?'_

Ronan stared at his phone for a long time. He would have nightmares about what had happened for years, most likely, and was not in the least bit happy with the way he had _forgotten he was living in a video game universe_ -

_(- he hadn't even thought to cast Sleep on them, just shot and killed, and -)_

No. He wasn't okay, but - that just wasn't the sort of thing you unloaded on someone who looked up to you.

 _'I will be'_ Ronan typed. And he would be. Eventually.

Cloud seemed to accept that. _'Zack wants to meet u now,'_ he sent. _'He didn't believe me when I said u were my mentor.'_

Ronan snorted at the screen. _'When I get back to Midgar, sure. Am in middle of materia run, now. Need to train up apprentices, 2, so they can kick friend's butt.'_

 _'Will b nice 2 meet them. Have 2 make sure theyre up to speed.'_ Then...

_'Did u tell Cmmdr Rhapsodos, yet? Dnt kno if he saw news, since in Wutai & they ddn't use ur name, so. ???'_

_'Not yet. Did news say my gender?'_

_'Nope, thnk u confsd them. Should prob tell Cmmdr Rhapsodos soon tho. Zack knos what Roxanne lks like nao, if he opns mouth then maybe problms. Srry, wsn't thkng.'_

Ronan made a face at the screen. He knew that he needed to fess up, had known it for some time, even - it was just that he really didn't want to. It would be kind of an awkward discussion to have, after all. If he said nothing, the problem would solve itself eventually, but it would leave Cloud in a nasty situation...

 _Dammit_ , Ronan thought. Before his nerves failed him, he composed a quick text message to Genesis and hit 'send.' _There_ , Ronan thought. _Over with._

He let Cloud know that he had been forgiven, then hid the PHS under his overcoat and collapsed into the bed. He covered his head with a pillow and resisted the urge to scream.

It was a long time before Ronan drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

  
The next morning, Ronan and the girls had decided to grab their breakfasts at the Saucer's food court. The monster-hunter had a sneaking suspicion that if they didn't go out into public after their ordeal, the girls might end up developing a complex later on down the line.

The three of them placed their orders, went to sit for a few minutes, and someone eventually called their order number. Ronan was just returning from the food stall with their things when he noticed that Dio had stolen his seat.

Ronan placed the eggs and pancakes and jicama-potato-looking hashbrowns with "avocado" slices in front of Shelke and Shalua and plopped his own dish in front of the seat next to Dio. He sat down. Then he took a bite.

Hell, he was hungry. And Dio _had_ just stolen his seat.

"I came to offer you a token of my esteem!" Dio said, before Ronan was finished chewing. "Several tokens, actually!" In his great beefy hand he held a materia and a key.

"Thank you," Ronan said, somewhat perplexed. He wasn't quite sure why he was being given anything. Dio had done most of the work, before. Ronan had just - well, actually, he had probably saved the guy's life. If Dio wanted to give him presents in return, good for him. Ronan wouldn't complain.

"Your new apprentices told me about your generous decision to take them on," Dio continued. "And I applaud you for it. Our way of life is fading, slowly but steadily, without new blood to replace old-timers such as myself."

"However, the West is not, perhaps, the best of places to start, and so!" Dio held up the materia with a flourish. "This will help you to cover them, until they are able to stand on their own two feet."

Ronan accepted the materia gingerly, sending a tendril of energy through it. Yeah, it was definitely a Cover. He glanced back at the two kids. Shalua was at about the right age to start learning how to fight, and Shelke... Shelke would have to learn, at least to defend herself. They didn't really have much of a choice.

"But!" Dio said, holding up the key. "That Cover is not at a high enough level to block all attacks, yet, and you have mentioned your plan to travel further westward. My dear old buggy, my old and faithful companion, can help! We traveled everywhere together, plains and valleys and rivers all! May it serve you as well as it served me."

"Thank you," Ronan said again, taking the key. He smiled awkwardly. It was probably the best solution, actually. It wasn't like they could just _walk_ the Western Continent until Shalua, at least, was at a much higher level.

Chocobos might have been an option, but the chocobos in the wild were nothing like the tame ones Roxanne had met at the stables near the Midgar swamp. After the second wild bird-dinosaur had shown up and nearly pecked her eyes out, Roxanne had decided that taming the things was perhaps best done by someone with the necessary bird-voodoo. Which was not them, alas.

Ronan just really hoped he would be able to figure out how to drive the damned thing.

The next morning brought a flood of people exiting the Gold Saucer. Ronan, Shalua and Shelke were among them. The buggy was parked outside the entrance platform, and it was as awkward-looking as it had appeared in the game.

Shalua was enthralled by it, running her hand over the tank-like treads and popping open the hood to examine the engine. Shelke just climbed into the back, PHS in hand. She was in happy gamer-land.

 _That's right_ , Ronan thought, looking at the older sister. Shalua had been an engineer of sorts in the game. First for AVALANCHE, and later for the WRO. Was she the one who had designed Barrett's arm-gun...? Ronan's brow furrowed in thought. She might have been. _Huh._

Ronan was more of a programmer than an engineer, but maybe Shalua and Cloud could talk mechanics, if it was ever safe to bring the girls to Midgar.

Thankfully, Shalua was as enthused at the idea of driving the buggy as she was about its inner workings. Ronan was happy to surrender the driver's seat to her.

"So," Shelke said, once the three of them were underway. "Are you a guy or a girl?"

Ronan snorted. "Depends on the time of day," he said.

"Really?" Shelke asked.

"No," Ronan shook his head. He was somewhere between worried and amused at that particular line of conversation.

Shelke looked disappointed at his answer. "Oh," she said.

"I'm what's called 'genderfluid,'" Ronan corrected. "So I switch genders sometimes. My girl name is 'Roxanne.'"

"Okay," Shelke nodded. "When we met you, you were a girl? But now, you're a boy?"

"Yep," Ronan nodded back.

"Got it," Shelke said, and returned to her game.

 _Kids_ , Ronan smiled. Way more willing to roll with things than most people thought.

Shalua glanced once towards Ronan. Then she seemingly caught herself, biting her lower lip and staring straight ahead.

"Yes?" Ronan asked her. The conversation was going to be awkward as fuck, he knew. Best to get it over with.

"I, um," Shalua said. "How does that.. work?" she winced.

"Your body and your gender don't always match up," Ronan said, keeping things as simple as possible. "Gender has to do with your brain, so it's kind of a fiddly thing."

"Oh. Okay," Shalua said. She opened her mouth once, then shut it again. She returned to staring straight ahead, but looked a little more relaxed than before.

The teen drove for a few hours before ceding the wheel to Ronan. Before taking over Ronan went to check his PHS. He had two new messages. Tseng and Legend. Both wanted him to stay on the Western Continent for the next few months at least.

He could guess why, and felt very relieved that the Turks were handling it.

Genesis still hadn't texted him back. Ronan tried not to think too hard on it.

The Buggy crossed a wide river before trundling through the Cosmo desert. Monsters attacked several times, and each time Ronan would exit the vehicle to battle them. At that distance the kids were able to absorb some of the monsters' life force energy, but not anywhere near as much as they would have had they been right next to the things.

Still, the two of them were able to make a couple of levels that way. It was the best they could do until Ronan was able to get them some proper gear. Actual training would have to wait.

A sandstorm appeared out of nowhere, once, and they had to power the Buggy down in order to weather through it. Ronan kept the cabin lit by channeling magic through one of his materia, and used the time to chat a bit more with the kids.

"So, why the Gold Saucer, exactly?" Ronan wanted to know.

Shalua shrugged. "Their security was supposed to be pretty good," she said. "And... we were getting tired of looking over our backs all the time."

Ronan nodded. "How did ShinRa find out about the..." here he made a hand gesture.

"Well..." Shalua hesitated.

"Mom thought it would be a good idea to tell the doctor about it," Shelke said.

"Ah," Ronan said.

"It was... it was a therapist," Shalua explained. "Because..."

"Mom thought I was a crazy liar," Shelke said. "And now she's dead." Shelke shrugged, returning to her game. Her act would have been more convincing if she wasn't blinking away tears every few seconds.

Shalua looked as if she had swallowed a lemon. "After Dr. Rosental... tested Shelke's gift, we were visited by a couple of men in suits. They wanted to take Shelke away, for schooling, they said. Mom said 'no.' They gave her a card and told her to call them if she changed her mind. She tore it up and threw it away the minute they left."

The teen hesitated a few moments before continuing. "A few days later, some other people came. They were... they were strange. It was very hot out, but they were wearing cloaks and hoods. They wanted Shelke to come with them. Mom... Mom said yes, and then she... when she came to get us... She told us to run."

 _Oh_ , Ronan thought, and then winced. What the hell did you say to kids who had gone through something like that? "And you've been on your own since?" he asked, for lack of anything better.

Shalua nodded, once, before curling herself into a ball on the Buggy seat.

"Damn," Ronan said. "I'm sorry."

"Wasn't your fault," Shelke said, not looking up from her game. Her eyes were shut.

Ronan eyed the two warily. Maybe there _was_ nothing to say. Nothing that could actually help. "It's gotta suck, though," he tried.

Shalua shot him a sarcastic glare. Shelke just shrugged.

That had gone over about as well as expected. Ronan leaned backwards in his seat and resigned himself to a long, awkward wait.

Poor kids. Poor mom. Fucking _Deepground._

Ronan was looking forward to unleashing Vincent on the bastards.

Of course, after the sandstorm stopped, the buggy refused to start again. Not even Shalua's fiddling was able to fix it.

Ronan brought up the World Map on his PHS. The sun was out in full force, and it was getting hotter by the minute. The desert was full of monsters. The only water-type spell he had was _Aqualung_ , and he was traveling with a _nine-year old._ It didn't look good.

"Do you know how to use materia?" Ronan asked Shalua, frowning.

"Yes...?" Shalua answered.

"Good." Ronan removed one of his armlets. He selected his freshly spawned Restore, Revive and Poison and popped them into the armlet's open materia slots. Then he handed the whole thing to Shalua.

Shalua accepted it, wide-eyed.

"There's a town about twenty miles north of here," Ronan said. "We should be able to reach it just fine, but we're probably going to get attacked by monsters a few times before we get there. I'm going to protect the both of you as best I can, but we're going to need to work together on this."

"When you said you'd take us on as apprentices, you were serious," Shalua whispered. She stroked the materia on the armlet and strapped it to her arm. Then, she dug around in her pockets and pulled out a stick. With a push of a button the stick expanded into a pole.

"I don't get any?" Shelke pouted from the side.

Ronan looked at her for a moment, considering... He grabbed one of his old armlets from the depths of his coat, inserted a Seal and handed it to her.

Shelke looked surprised, but accepted it.

"If anything gets too close to you, you can just put them to sleep," Ronan suggested. "If that doesn't work, then _run._ " He supposed his second Ice would have been a bit more useful to her, but there was no way he was giving a deadly weapon to a nine-year old. Just... _no._ No way in hell.

While Shelke digested this, Ronan continued speaking. "Shalua, your job is to protect your sister. I want the both of you to stay back from the fighting, at least for now. We can work on your training once we're safely in Cosmo Canyon."

Shalua nodded. She looked scared, which was a good sign. Scared meant that she was taking things seriously.

"Alright," Ronan said, clapping his hands together. Going to Cosmo Canyon was _not_ what he wanted to do right now, but he no longer had a choice. So. "We've got all our stuff, right? Then let's mosey."

They walked out into the desert's blinding light, and Ronan braced himself for a looong damn day. It looked like Dio's Cover would come in handy a bit earlier than expected.

* * *

  
Having brain weasels yourself didn't necessarily better prepare you for dealing with other peoples', Ronan noted as he took down the last of the latest Bagrisks that had somehow snuck up behind them.

It especially did not help you in trying to deal with impressionable children. There was a reason why they had decided to never have kids - and that had been _before_ they had discovered they were genderfluid. And ace-spectrum-y.

Cloud had been a special case - he was as socially isolated and emotionally stunted as Roxanne herself had been, growing up, and she had found it easy to understand and get along with him. The girls, on the other hand... Before the whole thing with their mother and Deepground, they had been normal. Or, close to it.

Ronan... did not do normal. He did caustically sarcastic, morbid humor with a touch of _science!_ and _poetry!_ and the occasional bout of ass-kicking. And, his brain was full of weasels. It... was important to remember that part.

They had been raised by a mother who had weasels of her own, and had not handled them responsibly. It... was not a good thing to expose kids to, in their experience. And while they were usually really good at self-management, right now? In Gaia? With all the shit that was going on? _Very bad_ for their state of mind.

Something was going to have to give, sooner or later. And if they didn't get some help, it was going to be _them_ and sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, finding a good therapist was always a pain in the ass. And with what Shalua and Shelke had gone through because that Rosenthal person couldn't keep their mouth shut? Ronan wasn't sure he wanted to risk it.

Ronan sighed, casting _Regen_ on himself. He looked behind him, to where Shalua stood protectively in front of her sister, staff clenched in a white-knuckled grip.

"All right back there?" he called.

Shalua nodded, shakily.

"Good. The canyon itself is just a few more miles off." Ronan removed his hat, wiping the sweat from his brow. It was sweltering in his gear, but if he removed it he would be fair game for nasty sunburns, dehydration, and vicious monster attacks. _AquaLung_ cost more in terms of magic than he really wanted to expend at the moment, and -

A wild idea struck him then, and in his heat-induced delirium it seemed like a good one. Maybe if he... _Hmm._

As the girls walked up to where he stood, Ronan concentrated, focusing his energy through the first materia he had ever used - his trusty long-mastered Ice. A sphere of water gathered together in front of him, coalescing into a frozen mass. It wasn't _Ice_ or _Ice2_ or _Ice3._ No, it was a new thing - manifested by his will -

The frozen ball trembled, cracks running through it, and it exploded into a cloud of slush. The girls jumped, Ronan jumped, but they were already covered in half-way frozen globs that were becoming less frozen by the second.

The girls looked at themselves, at where the slush-ball had appeared, and, finally, at Ronan. They were silent for a long moment, and then -

"Do that again," Shelke demanded.

Ronan did. They all sighed in enjoyment. It felt _wonderful._

"I didn't know that was even _possible_ ," Shalua marveled. "Unless - did you discover a new type of materia?"

"No," Ronan said, shaking his head with a bemused smile. "That was just a standard Ice," he shrugged. "It's mastered, though, which might be why I was able to pull that off. I didn't know it was possible to do that, either."

"Huh," Shalua said, nodding slowly.

Her eyes were gleaming with interest, Ronan noted. "Might be fun to test out, later," he continued. "I've got a fair amount of the things, now."

Shalua grinned in delight.

 _Definitely a scientist,_ Ronan thought to himself, fighting the urge to smile. Normal he might not know how to handle, but scientists? Those were easy. _(- they were a social scientist themself, after all - seduced away from the STEM fields by the siren song of applied anthropology, with a side order of public health -)_

But anyway, with scientists the best thing to do was to open the doors of learning and have a fun time exploring all the different possibilities. And materia? Had a ton of possibilities. Explosive possibilities, even, which were the best sort.

They made it to the canyon without further difficulties. Ronan was able to get a few Tranquilizers off of a couple of penguin-cactus-things and a Turbo Ether from a giant robot that his Sense informed him was called a _Golem._

Except usually ShinRa robots had a number or two in there somewhere, Proud Clod excepted, so it seemed a little weird. Maybe Scarlett's flunkies were feeling creative...?

The sun was dipping below the horizon when the three arrived in Cosmo Canyon proper. A bonfire was lit in a sort of central area, over to the right, and a crowd of people were gathered around. Musicians were playing softly while children zipped around their elders' feet. Off to the side, an older couple was dancing to a tune only they could hear.

Shelke looked over the scene with interest, but Ronan and Shalua were too exhausted to do anything but wander up to one of the locals and ask if she could point them in the direction of the inn.

Ronan rented them a couple of rooms - one with a nice king-sized bed for himself and another with two queen-sized beds for the girls. It was a bit more luxurious than he had been expecting, considering that they had had to climb a ladder to get there.

Then again, at first glance Cosmo Canyon seemed like a nice little hippie tourist town or something. They didn't look like they had a lot of industry or whatever to bring money in - besides the university, that was - so they probably made their living peddling culture. Which, hell, whatever worked, but the culturefest experience had never been Ronan's thing.

It was just so... fake.

But, anyway, tourists? Expected comfortable accommodations. So... yeah.

 _Eh_ , thought Ronan, sinking back into the bed. He was so fucking tired, his thoughts were no longer making sense. Absently, he checked his PHS. One new message. And... it was Genesis.

Ronan sat up, feeling a great deal more awake than before. He hesitated for a long moment before opening the message.

 _'I noticed the lack of an Adam's apple when we first met ;p.'_ Genesis had sent. _'Though, I must admit that I assumed you were a transman. Gender is not... necessarily a factor for me: I would be happy to meet your female half. I do have a confession of my own to make, though. Are you familiar with the term "demisexual"?'_

Ronan stared at the text, wide-eyed. Was Genesis really saying that he was...? Did they actually manage to find...?

 _'Yes.'_ Ronan typed slowly. _'I'm a grey-ace myself, actually, so I'm well familiar with the spectrum.'_ He hit 'send.'

He collapsed back into the mattress, throwing his arm up over his eyes. His heart was pounding at about a hundred miles per second, it felt like. _Holy... goddess_ , Ronan thought. Genesis didn't care about the gender thing, and he was on the spectrum too and they...

Did that - did that confession mean that Genesis - did he actually... Had Cloud been right all along...?

It was still pretty early wherever Genesis was, it seemed, because Genesis immediately texted him back. _'Really? I've... had some problems, before, from people who didn't understand. There are some things that I... have not had experience with, and am not necessarily comfortable doing, right away, or possibly ever. Is that acceptable?'_

Ronan frowned at the thought of those assholes. _'I'm not a jerk, Gen. At least not on purpose. Usually. I'm not going to ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with. If that just means cuddling on the couch, that's fine.'_

Cuddling on the couch would be fucking wonderful, actually. He hadn't had anyone to just cuddle with in what felt like... Hell. It had been a long time.

 _'You said you were a grey-ace. Does that mean you would never want something... more?'_ Genesis replied.

 _'I can have sex with others and enjoy it but I'm not exactly driven to it, if that's what you're asking. Mostly I just want to cover you in massage oil and rub you down until you become a purring pile of SOLDIER,'_ Ronan sent. And possibly tie him up and hand-feed him strawberries, but eh. That part was negotiable.

The phone was silent for a moment. Then; _'That would be perfectly acceptable for a first date :D.'_

Ronan grinned at the PHS. _'Sounds like a plan :D.'_

_'I should be back in Midgar by October...? If that would work for you?'_

He squinted at his phone. He kinda wanted to go back to Midgar to see Cloud, but with the kids and Deepground all...

Tseng and Legend had said that the thing should blow over in a couple of months, however. And by that time he would have hopefully woken Vincent up and sent him on his merry way. Plus, not even Deepground would want to get on the wrong side of one of the SOLDIER trio.

Still...

_'I ran into a bit of trouble with an anti-ShinRa organization, and it was suggested that I stay on the Western Continent for the foreseeable future. I'm alright, but the Turks are worried about their materia supplier.'_

_'What happened?'_ Genesis wanted to know.

_'The Gold Saucer was attacked while I was there. I... helped the owner deal with it. I think Tseng was worried about vengeance-seekers.'_

_'That sounds like him. Do you want to talk about it?'_

Ronan sighed. _'No one has ever attacked me with the intention to kill before. And I'd never done the same to anyone before this, either. I just... Heh. It's strange for a monster-hunter to not be used to violence, isn't it?'_

_'I had nightmares for a week straight, the first time I was deployed to Wutai. And that was after six months of training against humans in the VR room. I wouldn't call it strange, no.'_

Ronan snorted. Complaining about his trauma to someone who had to kill people up close and personal for a living seemed a little... off. But... who else was he going to talk to? _Cloud?_ He wasn't going to dump that on the kid. And Genesis _had_ offered...

_'The retired monster-hunter I told you about, the one from Costa del Sol? He drilled me a bit about dealing with human opponents. I just... forgot all of it when the guns started going off. Just... ducked for cover and played support.'_

_'Smart. Bullets are tricky, even with a mastered Restore.'_

Ronan chuckled and shook his head. That... yeah. Genesis was actually pretty good at this talking thing.

_'After we dealt with the first bunch, we came across a guy who was level 50. I thought we were going to die. Lucky thing Dio had an Exit, or we probably would have.'_

The phone was silent for a long moment after that.

_'Level 50? Are you sure?'_

_'That's what my Sense said, yeah.'_ Ronan frowned. Sure, that was a pretty high level, but was that really so unusual?

_'That's... Even Sephiroth is only level 45. And he's supposed to be the strongest in the world. That there's an anti-ShinRa organization out there with someone who is level 50 working with them is a bit worrying. Have you told the Turks?'_

_'Not... yet? You think I should?'_ Ronan was pretty sure they already knew, actually. They knew all of ShinRa's dirty secrets, right...? But... _Sephiroth_ was only level 45? That... was worrying.

_'Yes. Immediately. I'll inform SOLDIER. This is... troubling. Please stay safe.'_

_'I will,'_ Ronan promised.

They exchanged goodbyes and Ronan blinked up at the ceiling. _Well_ , he thought to himself. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been that.

Ronan tried to imagine the consequences of SOLDIER looking into Deepground. It was... if their strongest fighter was only level 45... And if all four Restrictors were around the level of the one he had met...

 _Hell_ , he thought to himself. SOLDIER might find itself in considerable trouble. Of course, the Turks would probably defuse the whole thing before the shit hit the fan, but... Ronan bit his lip.

He vaguely remembered something about a SOLDIER Unit named Ragnarok. They had supposedly been the strongest fighters of their day. Then they found out about Deepground, and challenged it, and... The Restrictors had slaughtered them all within an hour.

That was... Yeah, no. Ronan hadn't meant to stir the hornet's nest. At least, not like this.

Though, he _did_ just get confirmation that his friend hadn't gone crazy and run off to be taken advantage of by evil scientists. That was a plus. Especially since he was now _dating_ the guy.

Oh crap, he was dating the guy now. Officially. He was officially dating _Genesis._ Oh, fuck.

What the hell was he going to do now?


End file.
